How Nadhim Zahawi sealed his own fate by alienating Rishi Sunak in crucial final days in office
It was Nadhim Zahawi who was the author of his own downfall, after months when the row over his taxes rumbled on quietly in the background of politics.
Throughout two leadership elections and the chaos of the Liz Truss era, Mr Zahawi largely ignored questions about his dealings with HMRC – except when he took time to fire off legal letters to the journalists and tax experts who posed those questions.
But when he broke cover last weekend, admitting that he had paid a penalty to HMRC over an error that was “careless but not deliberate”, he sealed his fate.
Rishi Sunak was privately angry that he had been repeatedly misled, having been told – both by Mr Zahawi himself and by the civil servants who had vetted him – that there were no issues he had to worry about. Without speaking to his party chairman, he commissioned an inquiry from his new ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus and asked that it be carried out as quickly as possible.
If only Mr Zahawi had come clean earlier, Mr Sunak’s aides said, the Prime Minister would not have embarrassed himself by publicly backing him. The embattled minister might have survived; most Tory MPs privately expressed sympathy for him even after his tax troubles became public, pointing to his success as vaccines supremo and his effective performances defending the Government on the media.
Sir Laurie’s probe was completed remarkably speedily, and submitted to No 10 at 7am on Sunday. Reading through the four-page report at his constituency home in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak saw immediately that he had no choice but to fire Mr Zahawi. The findings did not enumerate how many times he had broken the ministerial code but pundits have totted up at least seven references to breaches of the rules, all stemming from a fundamental failure to declare his potential conflict of interest and be honest about it with the media.
“It was pretty clear,” a source said. After being accused of indecision for days, the Prime Minister snapped into action, calling Mr Zahawi a little over an hour later and rushing out the announcement about his fate at 9am – inconveniently while Michael Gove was in the middle of a broadcast round, which he started by defending the party chairman and ended by justifying his sacking.
Mr Sunak’s letter to Mr Zahawi contained one striking departure from the norm: rather than inviting him to resign, the Prime Minister made it clear that he was being fired. He wrote: “I have informed you of my decision to remove you from your position in His Majesty’s Government.”
This was no coincidence, i understands. A No 10 source said: “There was a desire to have no ambiguity, given that Sir Laurie found there was a serious breach so he had to be removed from Government.” It was a contrast to the Boris Johnson years, when the then-leader would give his support to scandal-hit ministers and – if they did eventually step down – suggest he was parting with them only reluctantly.
Mr Zahawi did not express contrition or regret in his response, hitting out at the press rather than apologising for his own mistakes. His friends briefed the Spectator that he wats not given a chance to defend himself properly, in a sign he may not be going quietly.
But despite his longstanding popularity, he may find few supporters in the Conservative Party now. One MP, asked whether the ministerial oversight system should be tightened, replied: “What needed tightening up was Nadhim’s decency.”
