Quite right!: why Nadhim Zahawi (and Reform) are making a mistake
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
For the full episode, search 'Quite right!' wherever you are listening now.
This week on Quite right!, Michael and Maddie examine Nadhim Zahawi’s dramatic defection to Reform UK and ask whether it strengthens the party’s insurgent credentials or exposes a deeper strategic mistake. Is Reform becoming a genuine outsider movement, or simply a refuge for disaffected Tories? And what does the pattern of Boris-era defections reveal about credibility, competence and the challenge of turning populist energy into a governing force?
Then, Iran: mass protests against the regime have erupted onto the streets of Tehran and beyond. Are these demonstrations the prelude to real regime change – or another brutal crackdown waiting to happen? And what role should the West, and the United States in particular, play as the situation escalates?
And finally: as MPs call for X to be banned in the UK over the conduct of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, Michael and Maddie ask whether this is a necessary intervention to protect the vulnerable – or another bout of performative pearl-clutching that misses the far bigger risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.co.uk/quiteright.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is Madeline Grant, host of Quite Right alongside Michael Gove. |
| 0:04.3 | If you want to hear the latest episode of Quite Right in full, then you can do so on its dedicated podcast channel. |
| 0:10.1 | Just search Quite Right wherever you are listening now. |
| 0:13.1 | Listeners on the best of Spectator playlist can enjoy a section of our discussions, |
| 0:17.0 | but for the full thing, please seek out the Quite Right channel. |
| 0:20.3 | While you're there, click the follow button to never miss an episode. |
| 0:23.4 | And why not give us a rating and review? |
| 0:25.4 | It really helps us out. |
| 0:26.9 | Happy listening. |
| 0:33.8 | Hello and welcome to Quite Right, the Spectator's weekly podcast, with me Michael Gove, editor of The Spectator. |
| 0:40.7 | And me, Madeline Grant, assistant editor of The Spectator. |
| 0:43.6 | And this week on Quiet Right, we will be discussing Nadim's Harwey's defection to reform. |
| 0:48.8 | Who does it help? Who does it harm? And what is the role that Boris plays in all this? We'll also be discussing street |
| 0:57.2 | protests in Iraq. Is this the portent of real regime change? And Elon, is he a force for good or evil? |
| 1:07.8 | Michael, this week there was a pretty big defection to Reform UK. |
| 1:11.5 | Nadine Zahari, a former Chancellor, former Education Secretary, former party chairman and |
| 1:17.2 | vaccine minister of the Tory Party defected to reform in a press conference that reform |
| 1:22.2 | often have these press conferences and the results of them are not always that surprising. |
| 1:26.5 | But I felt that Westminster was fairly |
| 1:28.8 | taken aback. What did you make of it? Well, it's certainly the case that Nadim has a storied |
| 1:34.0 | CV. So he was, albeit just for a few months, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he certainly |
| 1:39.2 | one applaud it, says a vaccine minister, for overseeing the rollout of the vaccine during COVID. |
... |
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