UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sacked Nadhim Zahawi as chairman of the Conservative Party on Sunday. Zahawi had come under fire for his tax arrangements. In a letter, Sunak wrote, “clear that there has been a serious breach of the Ministerial Code,” reported CNN. Nadhim Zahawi was being investigated to find out whether he violated the ministerial code at the time of settling a £4.8 million HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) dispute. There were claims that Zahawi had paid a penalty as part of this settlement with tax officials and that this dispute was not declared with tax authorities when he joined the government.
This latest development seems like Sunak has finally given in to the mounting pressure for action against Zahawi from the opposition. Sunak had been avoiding sacking Zahawi till now and had instead asked his new ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to evaluate whether the HMRC settlement was a Ministerial Code breach.
In a letter written by Sir Laurie to British prime minister Sunak on Sunday morning, the ethics adviser concluded that Zahawi had “shown insufficient regard for the general principles of the Ministerial Code.” The letter added that he did not fulfil the requirements of being an “honest, open and exemplary leader”.
According to Sir Laurie’s overall assessment, Zahawi’s “omissions” regarding his tax issues “constitute a major failure to fulfil the standards set out in the Ministerial Code.”
Soon after, Sunak informed Zahawi of his decision to oust him from his ministerial position in response to Sir Laurie’s findings in a letter to the Tory party chairman. Former prime minister Boris Johnson named Zahawi as chancellor of the exchequer, or finance minister, in July of last year. He stayed in the Cabinet under Liz Truss. Sunak appointed Zahawi as party chairman.
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