Nadhim Zahawi said he didn’t feel safe walking around London because he saw a tired man

Reform UK MP Nadhim Zahawi has claimed he crossed the road after fearing for his safety when a tired-looking man walked past him.

The former Conservative chancellor, who defected to Nigel Farage’s party in January, said he feels unsafe in London after he evaded a sleepy person roaming the streets of the capital.

Zahawi shared his views about safety in London in a radio interview with LBC, describing the moment a tired individual walked by him in one of London’s ‘most upmarket areas’.

When asked whether he feels safe in the UK’s capital, Zahawi replied with a resounding ‘no’.

‘Yesterday, I walked from my home in one of the most upmarket areas of London, and an individual walked past me,’ he said.

‘I literally walked off the pavement into the middle of the road, kept a very close eye, at 8am.’

He was later questioned about why he felt suspicious of the person before commenting on the passerby’s sleepy appearance.

‘He looked like he hadn’t slept for a week, and looked like somebody who might be violent, I don’t know,’ he said.

‘I just walked away from the pavement. I don’t feel safe that my 13-year-old can walk in London. That can’t be right.’

This is not the first time he has raised concerns over tired individuals in affluent areas of London.

In 2024, the former Tory member posted a picture of a man lying on the ground in Mayfair, covered in a white blanket.

He wrote: ‘This is now in Mayfair, just walked passed [sic]. What is going on ⁦@MayorofLondon⁩ this can’t be right.’

Zahawi, who spent two months in charge of the nation’s finances following Rishi Sunak’s resignation, defected to Reform UK on January 12.

The Reform UK MP described Farage’s party as ‘the team that will deliver for this nation’, but there were early hiccups after awkward historic tweets were dredged up.

In one past post, he calls Farage ‘offensive and racist’, adding: ‘I would be frightened to live in a country run by [him]’.

Before going into politics, Nadhim Zahawi was best known as the co-founder of the influential polling company YouGov.

In July 2022, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed him the chancellor following Sunak’s resignation, but he only stayed in the job for two months as new PM Liz Truss replaced him with Kwasi Kwarteng in September.

It later emerged he had been under investigation by HMRC during his term as chancellor, a revelation that led him to be sacked as Conservative Party chairman by Sunak.

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