FILE – Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi leaves the Conservative Party headquarters in Westminster, central London, Tuesday, January 24, 2023.
Alastair Grant/AP
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Alastair Grant/AP
FILE – Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi leaves the Conservative Party headquarters in Westminster, central London, Tuesday, January 24, 2023.
Alastair Grant/AP
LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired the chairman of his ruling Conservative Party on Sunday for “serious breaches” of the ministerial code.
Pressure was building on Nadhim Zahawi amid allegations that he paid an unpaid multi-million dollar tax bill while in charge of the country’s Treasury.
In a letter to Zahawi, Sunak wrote that he was forced to act after he promised at the beginning of his mandate that his government “will have integrity, professionalism and responsibility at every level.”
There was no immediate comment from Zahawi.
Zahawi, the founder of the polling website YouGov, had acknowledged a dispute with the tax authorities, but argued that his mistake was “careless and unintentional.”
British media reported that the deal came to nearly 5 million pounds ($6.2 million).
Zahawi led the UK Treasury from July to September 2022 in the final months of Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister. Sunak said the decision had come at the end of an investigation into the party chairman’s financial dealings by the government’s independent standards adviser.
The report by Laurie Magnus found that Zahawi had shown “insufficient respect” for the ministerial code and standards required “to be an honest, open and exemplary leader through his own conduct” in public life.
The investigation into his affairs by HMRC, the UK tax office, centered around the sale of around £27 million ($33.4 million) in shares in YouGov.
The probe began in April 2021, but Zahawi did not declare it when he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer more than a year later.
The Magnus report found that there should have been an understanding from the outset that the matter was serious.
Zahawi previously served as vaccine minister in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, followed by a nine-month stint as education minister.
