A senior Tory has defended his decision to post a picture online of a homeless person sleeping on the street in one of London’s wealthiest areas.

Nadhim Zahawi, a former Conservative Party chairman and chancellor, put the photograph on his X account yesterday, with the message: “This is now in Mayfair, just walked past. What is going on @MayorofLondon this can’t be right.” He added a “heartbroken” emjoi.

The post has so far received more than 8,000 responses, the vast majority of them critical of the multi-millionaire.

One said: “So, instead of stopping and asking them if they’re alright and if you can help, you took a picture of them and put it on here because it happens to be in a place of affluence? Can’t quite believe this isn’t a parody account.”

Another added: “Very glad you helped him, rather than just taking a photo without permission, walking ‘passed’, and declaring it’s someone else’s problem. People like you are the glue of our society.”

On Good Morning Britain this morning, Zahawi – who stood down as MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the general election – was asked why he had decided to highlight the homeless person’s plight to his 112,000 X followers.

Presenter Susanna Reid said: “Is it that you’d like to be mayor of London, because yesterday you tweeted a photograph of a homeless person lying on the pavement in one of probably the wealthiest parts of our capital.”

Before she could finish her question, Zahawi said he was now out of politics and described himself as “a foot soldier now” for the Tories.

He added: “I walk all over London. I could have been on Victoria Street and had the same thing happen.

“I know [London mayor] Sadiq [Khan] and he’s done some wonderful things in London, and I know the local Westminster councillors, and I was just outraged at the human tragedy of people – doesn’t matter it was Mayfair, I was just pointing that out as I was walking past.”

Reid told him had been accused of being “tone deaf”, but Zahawi replied: “That’s unfair. Quite the opposite, I was just trying to point out where it was to get people to hopefully help that individual.

“It could have been Victoria, it could have been Stratford-on-Avon, we’ve got similar problems all over the country.”

Zahawi also refused to rule out running to be London mayor in the future, saying: “Never say never.”