Nadhim Zahawi says tax error was found to be ‘careless and not deliberate’ after calls for his sacking
Nadhim Zahawi says his tax error was found to be “careless and not deliberate” after Labour called for him to be sacked over his finances.
The Tory chairman and cabinet member released a statement saying he wanted to “address some of the confusion” about his finances.
He said his father took founder shares in YouGov and that HMRC later “disagreed about the exact allocation”, leading him to “settle the matter and pay what they said was due”.
“They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error,” he said.
“So that I could focus on my life as a public servant, I chose to settle the matter and pay what they said was due, which was the right thing to do.”
‘I asked my father to help’
Questions have swirled following an article in The Sun on Sunday, which claimed a seven-figure payment was made by Mr Zahawi to end a dispute with the taxman “after scrutiny of his family’s financial affairs”.
Mr Zahawi also said in his statement: “As a senior politician I know that scrutiny and propriety are important parts of public life. Twenty-two years ago, I co-founded a company called YouGov. I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved. It is an amazing business that has employed thousands of people and provides a world-beating service.
“When we set it up, I didn’t have the money or the expertise to go it alone. So I asked my father to help. In the process, he took founder shares in the business in exchange for some capital and his invaluable guidance. Twenty-one years later, when I was being appointed chancellor of the exchequer, questions were being raised about my tax affairs. I discussed this with the Cabinet Office at the time.”
Mr Zahawi co-founded the polling company before entering politics, with shares kept in Balshore Investments, a Gibraltar-registered family trust.
The firm, which is headquartered in the UK, but has operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
What do we know about Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs?
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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves calls for Nadhim Zahawi to be sacked
A ‘murky affair’
Pressure has been mounting on the 55-year-old politician to respond to questions over his tax affairs, however up to now he had refused to comment.
The Guardian first reported that he paid a 30% penalty, taking the estimated total tax bill to more than £4.8m.
Responding to his statement, Labour Party Chair, Anneliese Dodds MP, said: “This blows a hole in Nadhim Zahawi’s previous accounts of this murky affair. He must now publish all correspondence with HMRC so we can get the full picture.
“In the middle of the biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation, the public will rightly be astonished that anyone could claim that failing to pay millions of pounds worth of tax is a simple matter of ‘carelessness”.
Calling for his removal as Tory Party Chair, she said Mr Zahawi still had much to explain, including when he became aware of the investigation, and if he was Chancellor at the time.
She also said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak needed to “set the record straight immediately” clarifying exactly what he knew about the investigation into Mr Zahawi.
The PM should ‘do the right thing’
Ahead of his statement, Labour had renewed calls for the prime minister to take action, and sack Mr Zahawi.
Speaking at the Fabian Society conference on Saturday, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “A few months ago… He was chancellor of the exchequer and responsible for Britain’s tax affairs and tax collection, and we now find that he wasn’t so keen to pay himself.
“So, if the prime minister wants to stick by his commitment for integrity, honesty and professionalism, he should do the right thing and sack Nadhim Zahawi.”
Mr Zahawi was chancellor between July and September last year, in the closing days of Boris Johnson’s premiership.
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Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab defends his Tory colleague
‘Proper transparency’
However, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab defended Mr Zahawi, telling Sky News: “I can’t speak for the personal tax affairs of a colleague, but what I would say is that Nadhim has been very clear that he’s paid all the tax that he’s owed, that he’s paid it on time, that there’s nothing outstanding due, and I think that’s of course right and proper.
“If there’s further questions, of course, I’m sure there’ll be the proper transparency.”
Asked if Mr Zahawi will still be in his post in a month, Mr Raab said: “A month’s a long time in politics. I certainly hope so.”
A spokesman for Mr Zahawi previously said his taxes were “properly declared and paid in the UK” and the minister had “never had to instruct any lawyers to deal with HMRC on his behalf”.
Rishi Sunak also defended his colleague at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, saying Mr Zahawi “has already addressed this matter in full and there’s nothing more that I can add”.
The spotlight on Mr Zahawi’s tax affairs has rounded off a challenging week for the PM, who on Friday was fined by police for not wearing a seatbelt in the back of a moving car.
The twin threats of climate change and Russian malign activity in the Arctic must be taken “deadly seriously,” David Lammy has warned.
Sky News joined him on the furthest reaching tour of the Arctic by a British foreign secretary.
We travelled to Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago that is the most northern settled land on Earth, 400 miles from the North Pole.
It is at the heart of an Arctic region facing growing geopolitical tension and feeling the brunt of climate change.
Mr Lammy told us the geopolitics of the region must be taken “deadly seriously” due to climate change and “the threats we’re seeing from Russia”.
We witnessed the direct impact of climate change along Svalbard’s coastline and inland waterways. There is less ice, we were told, compared to the past.
David Lammy and Norway’s Foreign Minister Barth Eide view the melting Blomstrandbreen glacier. Pic: PA
The melting ice is opening up the Arctic and allowing Russia more freedom to manoeuvre.
“We do see Russia’s shadow fleet using these waters,” Mr Lammy said. “We do see increased activity from submarines with nuclear capability under our waters and we do see hybrid sabotage of undersea cables at this time.”
In Tromso, further south, the foreign secretary was briefed by Norwegian military commanders.
The foreign secretary visiting SvalSat, a satellite ground station which monitors climate in Svalbard. Pic: PA
Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, the Chief of Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Sky News the Russian threat was explicit.
“Russia has stated that they are in confrontation with the West and are utilising a lot of hybrid methods to undermine Western security,” he said.
But it’s not just Vladimir Putin they’re worried about. Norwegian observers are concerned by US president Donald Trump’s strange relationship with the Russian leader too.
Norwegian observers are concerned about the Russian leader – and Trump being ‘too soft’ on him. Pic: AP
Karsten Friis, a Norwegian defence and security analyst, told Sky News: “If he’s too soft on Putin, if he is kind of normalising relations with Russia, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I would expect Russia to push us, to test us, to push borders, to see what we can do as Europeans.”
Changes in the Arctic mean new challenges for the NATO military alliance – including stepping up activity to deter threats, most of all from Russia.
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In Iceland, we toured a NATO airbase with the foreign secretary.
There, he said maintaining robust presence in the Arctic was essential for western security.
“Let’s be clear, in this challenging geopolitical moment the high north and the Arctic is a heavily contested arena and we should be under no doubt that NATO and the UK need to protect it for our own national security.”
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This is also about distracting Russia, drawing away resources that could have been used in the war in Ukraine and deterring it in the future.
Because the more Arctic opens up, the more this once pristine wilderness is becoming the arena of national rivalry and potentially conflict.
World
‘What did they do to be burned and bombed?’: Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment
A British charity has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary, urging them to allow seriously ill children from Gaza into the UK to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Warning: This article contains images readers may find distressing
The co-founder of Project Pure Hope told Sky News it was way past the time for words.
“Now, we need action,” Omar Dinn said.
He’s identified two children inside Gaza who urgently need help and is appealing to the UK government to issue visas as a matter of urgency.
Israel-Gaza latest: Netanyahu reportedly accepts US ceasefire plan
Britain has taken only two patients from Gaza for medical treatment in 20 months of Israeli bombardment.
Children are among the bulk of the casualties in Gaza
“Most of the people affected by this catastrophe that’s unfolding in Gaza are children,” he continued. “And children are the most vulnerable.
“They have nothing to do with the politics, and we really just need to see them for what they are.
“They are children, just like my children, just like everybody’s children in this country – and we have the ability to help them.”
Sky News has been sent video blogs from British surgeons working in Gaza right now which show the conditions and difficulties they’re working under.
They prepare for potential immediate evacuation whilst facing long lists, mainly of children, needing life-saving emergency treatment day after day.
Dr Victoria Rose is a British surgeon working in southern Gaza’s last remaining hospital
Dr Victoria Rose told us: “Every time I come, I say it’s really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It’s mass casualties. It’s utter carnage.
“We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don’t have the personnel. We don’t have the medical supplies. And we really don’t have the facilities.
“We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.”
One of her patients is three-year-old Hatem, who was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family apartment.
Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
His pregnant mother and father were both killed, leaving him an orphan. He has 35 percent burns on his small body.
“It’s a massive burn for a little guy like this,” Dr Rose says. “He’s so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.”
Hatem’s grandfather barely leaves his hospital bedside. Hatem Senior told us: “What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries? To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.”
Hatem Senior
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The second child identified by the charity is Karam, who, aged one, is trying to survive in a tent in deeply unhygienic surroundings with a protruding intestine.
He’s suffering from a birth defect called Hirschsprung disease, which could be easily operated on with the right skills and equipment – unavailable to him in Gaza right now.
Read more:
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Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
Karam’s mother Manal told our Gaza camera crew: “No matter how much I describe how much my son is suffering, I wouldn’t be able to describe it enough. I swear I am constantly crying.”
Children are among the bulk of casualties – some 16,000 have been killed, according to the latest figures from local health officials – and make up the majority of those being operated on, according to the British surgical team on the ground.
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