Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi faces fresh scrutiny of outside earnings he was able to keep secret thanks to expenses loophole – after making £1.3million from oil firm

  • He earned more than £1.3 million from a role with Burmuda-listed Gulf Keystone
  • He received a salary of £20,125 a month, for working 8- 21 hours per week
  • Total outside income unknown: carried it out via Zahawi & Zahawi consultancy










Nadhim Zahawi, cabinet minister, was under fresh scrutiny for his second job income. This is after he used a loophole legal to limit his earnings.

The Education Secretary earned more than £1.3 million from a role with Bermuda-listed Gulf Keystone from 2015 until he became a minister.

However, his income from other jobs, since he became an MP in 2010, is not known. He funneled it through a firm called Zahawi and Zahawi which he founded with Lana prior to being elected MP of Stratford in 2010.

No evidence has been presented to suggest that laws or regulations have been flouted. But Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, told the Mirror: ‘This could be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to get around the rules so that he doesn’t have to admit the scale of his earnings in a consultant capacity.

“The main thing is to emphasize that MPs are responsible for ensuring that they follow the code’s spirit as well as the letter.

“Constituents can have an accurate picture of how much time and what money the legislator is spending on political work.

The Education Secretary earned more than £1.3 million from a role with Burmuda-listed Gulf Keystone from 2015 until he became a minister.

The Education Secretary earned more than £1.3 million from a role with Burmuda-listed Gulf Keystone from 2015 until he became a minister.

But his total income from second jobs since becoming an MP in 2010 is unknown because he funnelled it through a consultancy firm, Zahawi and Zahawi, which he set up with wife Lana before being elected MP for Stratford in 2010.

His total income from second jobs after becoming MP in 2010 are unknown as he channeled it through a consulting firm Zahawi and Zahawi that he started with his wife Lana, before he was elected MP for Stratford.

Mr Zahawi, the Iraq-born founder of YouGov, was appointed chief strategy officer at Gulf Keystone Petroleum in 2015 and reported outside earnings which were the equivalent of an annual salary of £765,000. 

He received a salary of £20,125 a month, for working between eight and 21 hours per week. 

In addition to that, he received a string of bonuses between January and June 2016, adding up to £78,246.38, plus a payment of £52,325 made in September 2015 for 210 hours work, backdated to July last year.

After being appointed Minister for Children and Families, he resigned.  After serving as vaccines minister, he was appointed Education Secretary.

Zahawi was previously an advisor to Afren (another oil company which went bankrupt in 2015). 

Zahawi, a Kurdish boy born to Kurdish parents, was nine years old when he fled Iraq with his family, fearing persecution by Saddam Hussein.

He was born in Sussex and educated in London. Prior to entering Parliament, he worked as an entrepreneur. A Teletubbies-related venture that he started, which sold clothing for Teletubbies, failed and his supporters, former Tory great Jeffrey Archer, were forced out of their shares.

Zahawi continued to work as an aide for Archer, and co-founded YouGov alongside Stephan Shakespeare (another disgraced Tory peer).

The pair were reported to each have holdings worth £5.7million in YouGov when it floated on AIM in 2005.

We have reached out to Mr Zahawi for comment. 

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