POLITICS Nadhim Zahawi Sacked after being fined for taxes

The Conservative Party Chairman asserted his innocence until the report release

Katherine Seymour Head 0f Politics

Nadhim Zahawi was sacked by Rishi Sunak on Sunday (29th January) following revelations about his tax affairs not having been up to date when he became Chancellor following Sunak’s resignation from the position last July.

Rishi Sunak commissioned a report by his new ethics advisor (Sir Laurie Magnus) following growing reports into Zahawi’s tax affairs at the start of 2023. The report found that while HMRC began conversations with Zahawi in April 2021, the then vaccines minister maintained that he was not under investigation for his tax affairs until July 2022despite reports coming out just 5 days before which he had described as “smears”. The settlement, which was to come in August 2022, has been reported to have cost Zahawi £5m by the BBC. Sir Laurie Magnus ultimately found that Zahawi broke the ministerial code on several occasions by failing to report the updates around the HMRC investigation which he was under.

The report found that Zahawi had

The report found that (he)... maintained that he was not under investigation for his tax affairs until July

-MPs have passed minimum service legislation