Nadhim Zahawi’s political future appears under increasing threat, as Labour push for the former chancellor to be sacked over sleaze allegations surrounding his tax affairs.
The Conservative party chair, who attends cabinet, dominated headlines this weekend after he released a statement on Saturday confirming he had reached a settlement with HMRC over his shareholding in the polling company he co-founded, YouGov.
On Saturday, Mr Zahawi admitted he paid what HMRC said “was due” after it “disagreed about the exact allocation” of shares in the YouGov polling company he co-founded, an error he noted was “careless” not deliberate.
Mr Zahawi did not disclose the size of the settlement, but it is reported to be an estimated £4.8m including a 30% penalty.
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It is widely believed that Mr Zahawi made the settlement during his short time as chancellor under the then-prime minister Boris Johnson.
Labour has demanded to know whether prime minister Rishi Sunak knew that Mr Zahawi had paid a penalty to HMRC when he appointed him as party chair.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly addressed the matter on Sunday morning. He defended Mr Zahawi as an “effective” minister, but added that he had been unable to find out more details as he was busy over the weekend “having a bit of a rest and doing some shopping”.
Speaking this morning to Sky News, shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds stepped up Labour’s calls for Mr Zahawi to be sacked. He said “I think the minimum the British public expect from any politician, but certainly someone who’s been the chancellor of Exchequer, is that they would have paid all their taxes without having to be prompted to do so or harassed or campaigned against to do so.
“And the position to me is completely untenable. And I think the prime minister has got to act and we’ll see that very quickly today”.
Mr Reynolds added that the questions about Mr Zahawi influence politics on a wider scale.
He said: “And the danger is that the public sees a case like this and they just think all politics and public life revolves in this way and it doesn’t.
“And it undermines the probity of the country and it undermines the confidence people have in the political system”.
Also on the media rounds this morning, Lucy Powell, Labour’s shadow culture secretary, was equally clear that Nadhim Zahawi’s position is “totally untenable” and that Rishi Sunak should sack him from his role as chairman of the Conservative party.
She told the BBC Radio 4 “Today” programme: “His position is totally untenable and it shouldn’t be a case of we are sitting around waiting for him to resign, the prime minister should be sacking him.
“The prime minister took office only a few months ago declaring that his Government was going to be one of integrity, accountability and professionalism and here we have a very senior member of his Cabinet who at the time of these allegations was the chancellor when he, we now know, he was negotiating with HMRC to pay taxes that he was due to pay and a penalty for those and yet he is still in office”.
This comes as sources close to Mr Zahawi insist that the former chancellor is “absolutely not going to resign” over the issue.
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