Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, is in talks about chairing the biggest remaining part of the Barclay family’s business empire, fuelling speculation that he will join a mass exodus of Conservative MPs at the general election.
Sky News has learnt that Mr Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, is among the candidates to become the next chairman of Very Group, the Liverpool-based online retail and financial services company.
City sources said this weekend that discussions were ongoing, but cautioned that there was no certainty that Mr Zahawi would take the job.
If he does accept it, the former Tory leadership candidate would be expected to announce that he is joining the likes of Theresa May, the ex-prime minister, and former Conservative Party chairman Sir Brandon Lewis in standing down at the forthcoming election.
Mr Zahawi has been playing a role as an intermediary between the Barclay family and the Abu Dhabi-based investor IMI Investments since its interest in participating in a bid for The Daily Telegraph emerged last summer.
He had been tipped to chair the newspaper group if RedBird IMI, a vehicle fronted by former CNN president Jeff Zucker, had been successful in buying it.
However, a fierce backlash from Conservative parliamentarians prompted Downing Street to intervene and amend legislation that would prohibit ownership of British newspaper titles by investors connected to a foreign state.
RedBird IMI is now expected to seek to conduct a further auction of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine.
The Barclays, who used to own London’s Ritz hotel, have already lost control of…
