Who are the runners and riders to replace Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative Party chair?

Published

3 years ago

February 7, 2023

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Rishi Sunak will reshuffle his cabinet this morning with Nadhim Zahawi set to be replaced as Conservative Party chair after he was sacked over his tax affairs, Sky News understands.

The prime minister has been under pressure to pick the right candidate as he struggles to draw a line under ‘Tory sleaze’ allegations – despite vowing to turn over a new leaf when he entered Number 10.

Allies of Boris Johnson have been touting him as a potential successor, but others have been calling for someone who can create a “positive headline” to help turn around the party’s fortunes in the polls.

The party chair is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ).

Here, Sky News looks at the potential runners and riders.

Boris Johnson

There has been speculation of a Johnson comeback after Jacob Rees-Mogg said he has “all the right attributes” to be party chairman.

The senior Tory MP and close ally of the former PM told GB News on Sunday: “He is charismatic, he rallies the troops. He’s a sort of fully-loaded Conservative. So I think that type of personality would be a very good one for a party chairman.”

However, others have warned such a move would be divisive, while Mr Rees-Mogg on Tuesday conceded the former prime minister’s return to the front bench is unlikely.

“I think he would be a brilliant chairman, but he’s not going to be chairman”, he told Sky News.

“The person who is going to be chairman needs to be someone who is close to the prime minister and also very charismatic.”

Paul Scully

The Tory vice chair under Theresa May and deputy chair under Boris Johnson, minister for London Paul Scully is seen as someone with the right skills and experience to replace Mr Zahawi.

Ex-cabinet minister Theresa Villiers is among those endorsing him, telling Sky News: “Paul is a top campaigner. He has done brilliant work in this constituency and did very well when he was Deputy Chair at CCHQ.

“He knows how important it is to engage with minority ethnic groups and he also understands London which is a key electoral battleground.”

Justin Tomlinson

A relative outsider is the Conservative MP for North Swindon, Justin Tomlinson.

He was deputy chair during the successful Bexley by-election in December 2021 – the last by-election the Conservatives won.

Mr Tomlinson quit his position in July 2022 to help Kemi Badenoch launch her failed leadership bid, but prior to being an MP he ran a business supplying Conservative associations with their campaigning materials and is known to be something of a “campaigning geek” among colleagues.

One MP told Sky News: “With a general election looming, we need someone with a strong track record of campaigning and fundraising. Justin Tomlinson is probably the strongest campaigner we have.”

Another did not go as far as naming him but said he would do a “brilliant job” if picked as chairman.

Gillian Keegan

The current education secretary has also been tipped for the role.

In an article looking at Mr Zahawi’s potential successors, Paul Goodman, the editor of Conservative Home website, said: “Downing Street will want an appointment that creates a positive headline. It may take the view that the appointment of a woman will suit.”

The women in cabinet are Suella Braverman, Penny Mordaunt, Therese Coffey, Gillian Keegan, Kemi Badenoch, and Michelle Donelan.

Mr Goodman said: “The first is too senior, the second too ambitious, the third associated with Liz Truss and the fourth difficult though not impossible to move, given her pivotal role at education. Such an appointment would undoubtedly create a splash.”

Penny Mordaunt

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt is reportedly keen on replacing Mr Zahawi at CCHQ and is said to have pitched her credentials alongside Business Secretary Grant Shapps during last week’s cabinet away day.

Gavin Barwell, a Conservative peer and former chief of staff to Mrs May, said that while Mr Shapps has done the job before, Ms Mordaunt “is probably the best choice”.

He said in the run-up to the election the party chair needs to be an important figure who can communicate with media and has experience campaigning in marginal seats.

He told Times Radio: “When you look back at Rishi Sunak’s cabinet when he put it together, I felt Penny didn’t really get a role big enough to suit her talents, so this would give her a front and centre role in the run-up to the election.”

Priti Patel

A popular figure on the right of the party and well-liked among the Tory grassroots, Priti Patel is among the high-profile names tipped to replace Mr Zahawi.

While she has previously turned down the role, sources close to the former home secretary have not ruled out her return to the cabinet, according to the Telegraph.

Lee Anderson

Red Wall MP Lee Anderson has also been named as someone who could replace Mr Zahawi.

Marco Longhi, the Conservative MP for Dudley North, put a poll on Twitter asking who agrees with him that Mr Anderson “would make a great chairman of the Conservative Party”.

While more than 72% of those who responded voted no, Mr Longhi suggested the hard left had got hold of the poll and the results show “how worried they would be”.

However, it is unlikely Mr Anderson would be given the role.

The Ashfield MP has been outspoken on issues like foodbank usage and Channel crossings and last week compared the government to “the band on the Titanic”, according to leaked WhatsApp messages seen by Sky News.

William Hague

After Mr Zahawi’s sacking, rumours swirled that former Tory leader William Hague could make a return to frontline politics by filling the vacancy.

But Lord Hague, who is a close ally of Mr Sunak, quickly shut down that speculation.

“Since I’ve seen reports of people placing bets on me being the new party chairman, please be aware that I will absolutely not be returning to politics in any shape or form, including that one,” he said.

World

What’s it like with the National Guard on the streets of DC?

Published

8 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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What's it like with the National Guard on the streets of DC?

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

What’s it like on the streets of DC right now, as thousands of federal police patrol the streets?

Who is Steve Witkoff, the US envoy regularly meeting Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu to broker peace in Ukraine and Gaza?

And why is Californian Governor Gavin Newsom now tweeting like Donald Trump?

Martha Kelner and Mark Stone answer your questions.

If you’ve also got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

World

It’s been a confusing week – and Trump’s been made to look weak

Published

8 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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It’s been a confusing week.

The Monday gathering of European leaders and Ukraine’s president with Donald Trump at the White House was highly significant.

Ukraine latest: Trump changes tack

The leaders went home buoyed by the knowledge that they’d finally convinced the American president not to abandon Europe. He had committed to provide American “security guarantees” to Ukraine.

The details were sketchy, and sketched out only a little more through the week (we got some noise about American air cover), but regardless, the presidential commitment represented a clear shift from months of isolationist rhetoric on Ukraine – “it’s Europe’s problem” and all the rest of it.

Yet it was always the case that, beyond that clear achievement for the Europeans, Russia would have a problem with it.

Trump’s envoy’s language last weekend – claiming that Putin had agreed to Europe providing “Article 5-like” guarantees for Ukraine, essentially providing it with a NATO-like collective security blanket – was baffling.

Russia gives two fingers to the president

And throughout this week, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly and predictably undermined the whole thing, pointing out that Russia would never accept any peace plan that involved any European or NATO troops in Ukraine.

“The presence of foreign troops in Ukraine is completely unacceptable for Russia,” he said yesterday, echoing similar statements stretching back years.

Remember that NATO’s “eastern encroachment” was the justification for Russia’s “special military operation” – the invasion of Ukraine – in the first place. All this makes Trump look rather weak.

It’s two fingers to the president, though interestingly, the Russian language has been carefully calibrated not to poke Trump but to mock European leaders instead. That’s telling.

The bilateral meeting (between Putin and Zelenskyy) hailed by Trump on Monday as agreed and close – “within two weeks” – looks decidedly doubtful.

Maybe that’s why he went along with Putin’s suggestion that there be a bilateral, not including Trump, first.

It’s easier for the American president to blame someone else if it’s not his meeting, and it doesn’t happen.

NATO defence chiefs met on Wednesday to discuss the details of how the security guarantees – the ones Russia won’t accept – will work.

European sources at the meeting have told me it was all a great success. And to the comments by Lavrov, a source said: “It’s not up to Lavrov to decide on security guarantees. Not up to the one doing the threatening to decide how to deter that threat!”

The argument goes that it’s not realistic for Russia to say from which countries Ukraine can and cannot host troops.

Would Trump threaten force?

The problem is that if Europe and the White House want Russia to sign up to some sort of peace deal, then it would require agreement from all sides on the security arrangements.

The other way to get Russia to heel would be with an overwhelming threat of force. Something from Trump, like: “Vladimir – look what I did to Iran…”. But, of course, Iran isn’t a nuclear power.

Something else bothers me about all this. The core concept of a “security guarantee” is an ironclad obligation to defend Ukraine into the future.

Future guarantees would require treaties, not just a loose promise. I don’t see Trump’s America truly signing up to anything that obliges them to do anything.

A layered security guarantee which builds over time is an option, but from a Kremlin perspective, would probably only end up being a repeat of history and allow them another “justification” to push back.

Image and reality don’t seem to match

Among Trump’s stream of social media posts this week was an image of him waving his finger at Putin in Alaska. It was one of the few non-effusive images from the summit.

He posted it next to an image of former president Richard Nixon confronting Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – an image that came to reflect American dominance over the Soviet Union.

That may be the image Trump wants to portray. But the events of the past week suggest image and reality just don’t match.

The past 24 hours in Ukraine have been among the most violent to date.

World

At least 17 dead in Colombia after car bombing and helicopter attack

Published

8 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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At least 17 dead in Colombia after car bombing and helicopter attack

At least 17 people were killed after a car bombing and an attack on a police helicopter in Colombia, officials have said.

Authorities in the southwest city of Cali said a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated near a military aviation school, killing five people and injuring more than 30.

Authorities said at least 12 died in the attack on a helicopter transporting personnel to an area in Antioquia in northern Colombia, where they were to destroy coca leaf crops – the raw material used in the production of cocaine.

Antioquia governor Andres Julian said a drone attacked the helicopter as it flew over coca leaf crops.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro attributed both incidents to dissidents of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

He said the aircraft was targeted in retaliation for a cocaine seizure that allegedly belonged to the Gulf Clan.

Who are FARC, and are they still active?

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla organisation, was the largest of the country’s rebel groups, and grew out of peasant self-defence forces.

It was formed in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, carrying out a series of attacks against political and economic targets.

In 2016, after more than 50 years of civil war, FARC rebels and the Colombian government signed a peace deal.

It officially ceased to be an armed group the following year – but some small dissident groups rejected the agreement and refused to disarm.

According to a report by Colombia’s Truth Commission in 2022, fighting between government forces, FARC, and the militant group National Liberation Army had killed around 450,000 people between 1985 and 2018.

Both FARC dissidents and members of the Gulf Clan operate in Antioquia.

It comes as a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that coca leaf cultivation is on the rise in Colombia.

The area under cultivation reached a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the UN’s latest available report.