The Nadhim Zahawi saga shows no sign of concluding. Every time the story looks like burning out, a new disclosure gives it legs. Tonight, it’s the revelation by the Financial Times that a second senior Tory MP was being investigated by HMRC last summer around the same time as Zahawi. It’s a curious tale, based on a freedom of information request by tax expert Dan Neidle – a man who ought to earn some sort of gong for services to the Labour party.
In response to Neidle’s request for information, HMRC admitted on 15 June that an unnamed minister was under investigation. Eight days later though, as the FT was about to publish a story on 23 June, HMRC claimed that no ministers were in fact being scrutinised, prompting the paper to pull the planned article. A fortnight after that, on 7 July, HMRC changed its position once again and admitted that, er, a minister was, indeed, under investigation.
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