Nadhim Zahawi: Rishi Sunak orders investigation into Tory party chairman amid calls to sack him over tax row
Rishi Sunak has ordered an investigation into Nadhim Zahawi as he resisted calls to sack the Tory party chairman over his multimillion-pound tax dispute.
The prime minister asked new ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus on Monday to assess whether the cabinet minister breached the ministerial code with the HMRC settlement he made while he was chancellor, but it could extend to his prior tax arrangement and whether he lied to the media.
Mr Sunak retained confidence in the former chancellor but said he was launching an investigation because “clearly in this case there are questions that need answering”.
He added that he was not leader at the time of the allegations and insisted the advice he received when he gave Mr Zahawi a senior role was there was “no reason” not to appoint him.
But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “He promised us, his first words, integrity and accountability.
“Well, if those words mean anything, the prime minister should sack him and sack him today and show some leadership.”
Politics live: Zahawi told to quit – amid ‘clear evidence’ TV interview defence was ‘not true’
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has also said Mr Zahawi’s position is “untenable”.
Earlier, a source close to the embattled Tory MP said he is “absolutely not going to resign” in the face of growing pressure over his settlement, estimated to be around £5m.
The government’s paymaster general, Jeremy Quin, told the Commons on Monday the process for the management of conflicts of interest, or potential conflicts, is “clear and robust”, however the PM has the ultimate say on appointments.
But he added: “It is a responsibility of all ministers to ensure that no conflict arises or could be reasonably perceived to arise between their role and their interests, financial or otherwise.”
The tax expert who investigated Mr Zahawi has joined calls for him to go, telling Sky News there is “clear evidence” he has not been truthful about his affairs.
Dan Neidle, the Founder of Tax Policy Associates and a Labour member, pointed to comments made by Mr Zahawi to Kay Burley last summer, while the then-chancellor was running to be leader of his party.
Mr Zahawi said he was “clearly being smeared” over questions about his affairs – and that he did not “benefit” from an “offshore trust”.
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Rishi Sunak has asked his independent ethics adviser to investigate Nadhim Zahawi
Speaking to Kay Burley on Monday, Mr Neidle said that a filing disclosure from YouGov – the polling company Mr Zahawi co-founded – showed he “received £99,000 from Balshore Investments”, a company based in Gibraltar.
Mr Neidle said: “That’s not my supposition or a guess – it’s absolute fact.
“And yet he denied that to you.”
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Mr Neidle said there could be “an innocent explanation” for Mr Zahawi’s tax error, which the Tory MP called “careless not deliberate”.
But he added: “I lack the imagination to see it and if there isn’t one, I think he should resign.”
What we still don’t know about Zahawi’s tax dispute
Nadhim Zahawi did not answer questions when he arrived at Conservative Party headquarters on Monday
Questions about Mr Zahawi’s tax affairs have continued, even after he released a statement to “address some of the confusion about my finances”.
On Saturday he admitted he paid what HMRC said “was due” after it “disagreed about the exact allocation” of shares in YouGov.
But he did not disclose the size of the settlement – reported to be an estimated £4.8m including a 30% penalty – or whether he paid a fine.
Sky News understands he did pay a fine, and Mr Neidle said the use of the word “careless” confirms this.
He said “careless means something specific” in tax terms – “that you didn’t behave in a reasonable way”.
“A reasonable way is you instruct decent tax advisers. You tell them the truth, you follow their advice, you check your final tax returns as best you can.”
It is also not clear how much money Mr Zahawi made before settling the dispute.
Mr Neidle said: “I think he would have received about £27m and not paid tax on it until eventually he was forced to because it was being reported. He didn’t admit it, denied it, threatened to sue people and went to HMRC to quietly settle it.”
Mr Zahawi did not answer questions from reporters as he headed into the Conservative Party headquarters in Westminster earlier on Monday.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
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