Downing Street has announced that Nadhim Zahawi is the new education secretary following Boris Johnson’s reshuffle.
Here is what we know about him:
1. Born in 1967, Nadhim Zahawi is 54 years old, five years older than the average starting age of education secretaries, 49. But he’s far from the oldest person to take the job – Keith Joseph was 63.
2. Zahawi is the first non-white education secretary in history.
3. He was born in Iraq, but his family fled Saddam Hussein’s regime, and Zahawi came to the UK when he was nine. He grew up in Sussex.
4. Zahawi was educated initially at the comprehensive Holland Park school before moving to the private Ibstock Place and King’s College schools in London. The vast majority of past education secretaries were also privately educated.
5. An often touchy subject, but as the role involves children so directly it will be mentioned at times: Nadhim Zahawi has three children. The average for other education secretaries is 1.76. The most common number of children is zero.
6. Zahawi studied chemical engineering at University College London, the first education secretary to study that particular subject, though Margaret Thatcher’s degree was in chemistry.
7. He was an aide to Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer in the early 1990s. He co-founded the polling company YouGov in 2000.
8. According to the Guardian, Zahawi spent much of his parliamentary career working as chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone Petrolium, which paid him up to £30,000 a month for his work. The paper also reported in 2017 that Zahawi had spent more than £25 million on property.
9. Zahawi has some experience in the education sphere. He was an apprenticeships adviser to Downing Street during the Coalition years, and later served as children’s minister.
10. During a profile interview with FE Week in 2016, he said wanted to be an international show jumper when he was growing up, but that he was very happy to be an entrepreneur and then an MP.
11. Zahawi also revealed to FE Week that as he and his wife Lana are keen horse riders, they own a stables at their Warwickshire home.
12. His predecessor, Gavin Williamson, was in role for 785 days. The average is 840. If Zahawi stays in office for the average number of days he will leave on January 3 2024.
13. He used to make the taxpayer pay for keeping his horses warm.