The Tory Party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, was fired on Sunday, and Rishi Sunak has defended his handling of the situation by asserting that he followed “the right process.”
The PM’s ethics adviser conducted an investigation and found that Mr. Zahawi had violated the ministerial code seven times while concealing the fact that HMRC was looking into his tax affairs.
As soon as the investigation was over, Mr. Sunak claimed he “acted pretty decisively.”
According to Labour, Mr. Zahawi should have been fired by the prime minister “long ago.”
Deputy leader Angela Rayner called Mr Sunak a “hopelessly weak” prime minister who had “been dragged kicking and screaming into doing what he should have done long ago”.
“Rishi Sunak shouldn’t have needed an ethics adviser to tell him that Nadhim Zahawi’s position was untenable,” she said.
Ms Rayner and Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds have now written to the prime minister asking him to “come clean” about when he was made aware of the HMRC investigation into Mr Zahawi.
But speaking in County Durham, the prime minister defended his handling of the situation and stressed his commitment to “integrity”.
“What I have done is follow a process, which is the right process,” he said.
“As soon as I knew about the situation, I appointed somebody independent, looked at it, got the advice and acted pretty decisively to move on.
“The things that happened before I was prime minister, I can’t do anything about. What I think you can hold me to account for is how I deal with the things that arise on my watch.”
Mr. Sunak also stated that he will “take whatever steps are necessary to restore the integrity of politics.”
Asked if Mr Sunak had ever asked Mr Zahawi about press reports about his tax affairs, his spokesman declined to comment, saying he wouldn’t discuss private conversations.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the spokesman added that the PM had been advised there were were no outstanding issues involving HMRC when he appointed Mr Zahawi in October.
The BBC understands that Mr Zahawi had paid around £5m in total, including a penalty. At the time he was responsible for the UK’s tax system as chancellor under Boris Johnson.
Mr Zahawi has previously insisted that he acted properly, and that his tax error was “careless and not deliberate”.
Supporters of Mr Zahawi have raised concerns about the ethics probe with the BBC, saying he had only one meeting with the prime minister’s independent ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus.
They questioned whether due process had been followed and suggested Mr Zahawi had not been allowed to make sufficient representations.
‘Omissions’
Mr Sunak’s spokesman rejected suggestions the probe was rushed, insisting Sir Laurie had been given enough time to establish the facts.
Sir Laurie found Mr Zahawi’s “omissions” of information constituted a “serious failure to meet the standards set out in the ministerial code”.
He was also critical of the MP for describing news stories about his tax affairs as “smears” in July 2022, and failing to correct the record until earlier this month.
“I consider that this delay in correcting an untrue public statement is inconsistent with the requirement for openness,” he said.
After receiving the findings on Sunday, Mr Sunak wrote to Mr Zahawi to say he had decided to remove him from government.
Mr Zahawi thanked the prime minister and said he took pride in his role in the vaccine rollout and the Queen’s funeral – but did not offer an apology or mention his tax affairs.
He promised to support the prime minister “from the backbenches in the coming years.”
Timeline
April 2021: HMRC starts having interactions with Mr Zahawi, including a meeting with him and his advisers. Mr Zahawi – who was vaccines minister at the time – told Sir Laurie he believed he was “merely being asked certain queries” rather than being investigated. Sir Laurie says Mr Zahawi should have understood this was “a serious matter” and included it in his declaration of interests
15 September 2021: Mr Zahawi is made education secretary by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Sir Laurie says Mr Zahawi again failed to declare his interest
5 July 2022: He is promoted to chancellor. He completes a declaration of interest for his new role but makes no reference to an investigation by HMRC
10 July 2022: Mr Zahawi describes reports he is being investigated by HMRC as “smears”
15 July 2022: He receives a letter from HMRC and subsequently updates his declaration of interests to acknowledge an investigation was under way.
August 2022: Mr Zahawi reaches an agreement with HMRC for failing to take “reasonable care”. The BBC has been told the total amount paid was about £5m
September 2022: A final settlement is agreed with HMRC but Mr Zahawi does not update his declaration of interest form with the new information
September and October 2022: Mr Zahawi becomes a levelling up minister under Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership and Tory Party chair under Rishi Sunak. Again, Mr Zahawi does not update his declaration of interest form
21 January 2023: Mr Zahawi issues a statement acknowledging he reached a settlement with HMRC following an investigation
23 January 2023: The prime minister asks his ethics adviser Sir Laurie to look into the disclosures made about the tax affairs of Mr Zahawi
29 January 2023: The PM receives Sir Laurie’s report, which found there had been a “serious breach of the ministerial code”, and Mr Zahawi is sacked.