Nadhim Zahawi tells BBC’s Andrew Neil he ‘doesn’t know if Jeremy Corbyn will shoot rich people’ in ‘absurd’ interview Andrew Neil asked: ‘You’re seriously saying to our viewers that you don’t know if Mr Corbyn’s going to have wealthy people shot?’

Business minister Nadhim Zahawi has been forced to backtrack during a TV interview after initially claiming he did not know whether Jeremy Corbyn would shoot Britain’s richest people if he becomes Prime Minister.

The “absurd” comment from the Conservative candidate came after he was challenged by Andrew Neil over Boris Johnson’s recent article, in which he compared the Labour leader and his views on the wealthy to Soviet chief Joseph Stalin’s persecution of affluent Russian farmers during his dictatorship.

“Stalin deported two million Kulaks to Siberia. He had hundreds of thousands of them shot. He did nothing when five million peasants starved to death. The comparison between that and Mr Corbyn wanting to raise taxes on the rich is absurd. Isn’t it?” asked the BBC presenter on Wednesday night’s The Andrew Neil Show.

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Mr Zahawi responded: “No, well, when you begin to demonise the wealth creators, the entrepreneurs, it is in my view an incredibly dangerous road to go down.”

“Will he have them shot?” Mr Neil pressed, to which Mr Zahawi replied: “I don’t know you’ll have to ask him that question.”

‘You’re seriously saying this to viewers?’

Appearing baffled, Mr Neil said: “You’re seriously saying to our viewers, tonight, that you don’t know if Mr Corbyn’s going to have wealthy people shot?”

As Mr Zahawi accused the Labour leader of wanting to take their money away, Mr Neil interjected: “This is getting absurd.”

In Mr Johnson’s article, published in The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister claimed Labour “pretend[s] that their hatred is directed only at certain billionaires – and they point their fingers at individuals with a relish and a vindictiveness not seen since Stalin persecuted the kulaks”.

Mr Zahawi went on to blast Mr Corbyn’s attitude towards businesses during the BBC programme. “Jeremy Corbyn is not on the side of business. And he wants to create a them and us society. He’s all about division. He wants to demonise wealth creators, the entrepreneurs that make this country great, that pay for all the public services.”

Later he appeared to peddle back on his initial comments, saying: “He wants to take away their property. This country is a property-owning democracy. It cares about the legal rights of people. Jeremy Corbyn is anticking business, is attacking property rights.”

Mr Neil said: “He’s not shooting people or starving them to death, is he?”

“You’re right but the analogy of attacking and dehumanising still holds,” replied the Conservative candidate.

‘Demonising the Tories’

Earlier in the show, Mr Neil challenged the business minister about party controversies that had taken place as the Conservatives launched their general election campaign.

After being asked about Jacob Rees-Mogg’s comments about the Grenfell fire victims, Mr Zahawi said: “He has apologised unreservedly when he misspoke. He did absolutely. Andrew have you never misspoken in your life?”

He then accused Labour of “demonising the Conservative Party”, prompting Mr Neil to say: “So it’s the poor Tory party that are victims? You are being demonised?”

Mr Zahawi said their policies could be challenged but that it was not true to call the whole party a “nasty organisation”.