“Although I understood why my dad had to flee, it was hard to reconcile being wrenched away,” Zahawi said. “It was a time of sadness and heartbreak. England was grey skies and cold.
“You cry at night. You think, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to survive. But one great thing about children, especially going through trauma, is that they very quickly adapt. If I could whisper into the ear of that young boy arriving in England, I’d say you’re the luckiest little boy on Earth.”
Zahawi also spoke about the positive benefits of migration and the need for a ‘grown-up conversation’ about immigration – in marked contrast to the rhetoric of successive governments in which he served under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
“When I get an Uber, I chat to people who were doctors, pharmacists, engineers in their country and were wrenched away from their life, came to our country and took on jobs they wouldn’t do in their country to try to survive and thrive,” Zahawi said.
“It’s worth all of us pausing when we talk about migration or different communities. If you had to make that journey, I think you’re worth listening to.”
So how does he square that with the hostile environment policies that ramped up during the time his party was in government?
“The hostile environment thing was a mistake,” he said.
“Let’s have a debate about what kind of immigration we need for our country. Where do we want more migrant labour? How do we challenge employers, businesses, education institutions to do better at upskilling and reskilling people? We need a grown-up, cross-party debate about what the future of the UK looks like as a nation, assimilated, brought together by shared values.
“Otherwise, you get into a world where very potent, simple, populist sloganeering poisons the well of goodwill this nation has. And I’m convinced this is the best-willed nation in the world.”
Elsewhere in the new interview, Zahawi revealed his regrets about a close friend who ended up homeless after becoming addicted to heroin.
“My best friend ended up not getting any O-levels, dropping out and falling into heroin addiction and homelessness,” said Zahawi, who courted controversy the day after our interview when he shared a picture of a rough sleeper in wealthy Mayfair on social media.
“It just drove home to me how fragile life can be. The line between being on the street and being Second Lord of the Treasury is a very, very, very slim, fine line.
“I’d tell my younger self, don’t let him go off the rails – take him with you on the journey you go on. Make him believe life could be so much better. I would have probably had to almost get into a physical fight to stop him taking drugs. And I wish I had – I wish I hadn’t just gone along with it.”
Read Nadhim Zahawi’s full Letter to My Younger Self in the Big Issue, on sale now.
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