Nadhim Zahawi is damned by the report into his tax affairs

Nadhim Zahawi is damned by the report into his tax affairs by Sunak's adviser on ethics, Sir Laurie Magnus.

He says Zahawi and his advisers met with HMRC, the tax authorities, in June 2021, and that "he should have understood at the outset" he was under investigation, and yet he never properly disclosed this in public, constantly gave the impression he was simply responding to admin queries from HMRC and did not update his ministerial declaration of interests till mid July 2022. Even after that he failed to share all relevant information.

So, of course Rishi Sunak has sacked him. He had no choice. There has rarely been such a comprehensive breach of the code of ministerial conduct. It will be very hard for Zahawi to come back from this.

The number of times that Nadhim Zahawi breached the ministerial code of conduct over more than 18 months is breathtaking. Really quite extraordinary. It is almost comic that he did not include details of the outcome of the HMRC investigation in his declaration of interests form till 16 January 2023, and Magnus was unable to read this because Zahawi's permanent secretary was still reviewing it!