Prime Minister Sunak’s announcement: The Minister and President of the Conservative Party has been sacked. “There was a serious violation of the Ministerial Code”
LONDON – A new scandal has rocked the British political scene.
Nadhim Zahawi, leader of the Conservative Party and Minister without portfolio in the Sunak government, was relieved of his post.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had distinguished himself as secretary of state for the vaccination campaign in times of Covid, Zahawi was for days at the center of heated controversy over a fine paid to the tax authorities in relation to revenues and organization of a key polling company he founded, YouGov.
“When I became prime minister – says the letter Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sent him – I promised that my government would demonstrate integrity, professionalism and responsibility at all levels.”
That is why, Sunak specified, he had commissioned the parliamentary ethics adviser to conduct an investigation into the matter, which quickly came to a conclusion and showed that “there had been a serious breach of the ministerial code”.
Sunak thanked his colleague for government services, recalling that he and “other prime ministers” could count “with pride” on a Baghdad-born man who came to Britain as a Kurdish refugee.
The inquiry, conducted by Sir Laurie Magnus, found Zahawi wrongly failed to inform the government of the checks the Treasury official was taking against him, and thus a possible conflict of interest, when Boris Johnson appointed him Chancellor of the Exchequer in July last year.
Furthermore, Zahawi would have remained silent about his tax history during the two subsequent appointments to the Councils of Ministers by Liz Truss and Sunak. Last July, Zahawi paid £5m in fines and additional taxes to the Inland Revenue.
January 29, 2023 (Change January 29, 2023 | 12:00)
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