Why was Nadhim Zahawi fired? Today’s report by Laurie Magnus, the PM’s adviser on ministerial interests, says it’s a question of honesty and disclosure. HMRC started talking to Zahawi about his tax affairs in April 2021 but this became a formal investigation shortly after he became Chancellor on 5 July last year. By this time, he had been knocked out of the Tory leadership race. He had agreed to pay a penalty and the matter was closed. But he’s accused of keeping this hidden and has, it seems, been fired for the secrecy.
The Magnus report goes into detail about the offense. A minister facing an HMRC investigation would have been expected ‘to inform their permanent secretary and seek advice’, it says (paragraph 9) and then ‘update their declaration of interests form’. We’re left to believe that Zahawi did neither, thereby committing a career-ending breach of the ministerial code.
But is it really so? Allies of Zahawi say he did tell Tom Scholar, the then Treasury Permanent Secretary, about both the HMRC investigation and the penalty paid.
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