The Zahawis’ conservative worth

An outsider to watch in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, Nadhim Zahawi is a virtual pauper by the standards of Rishi Sunak, who sits on a £750m family fortune. Yet the education secretary seems intent on slowly closing the gap.
Updated records from Companies House show that his wife, Lana, banked a £1.1m profit last year from the property empire she co-founded with him. The return shows the value of the property holdings stood at £83.7m as of June last year. The couple are worth – at a conservative estimate – £100m.

Zahawi helped his wife to set up the business – Zahawi & Zahawi – in 2010, and it comprises a livery stable at their home in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Its assets are worth £58.4m at latest count; while his wife’s other firms – Zahawi Wantage and Zahawi Brierley Hill – acquired their properties in 2018, holding £18.2m and £7.1m respectively.

Zahawi’s wife put up £29.8m to get the property empire started, with “other creditors”, as well as £31.5m in bank loans to make up the difference. The pair reside in some style in a £20m London townhouse and they have places in Dubai, too.