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SKI IN STYLE SAN MORITZ STILL IMPRESSES EVEN THE MOST WELL-TRAVELLED P16
TAX TROUBLE SEES SUNAK SACK ZAHAWI
MONDAY 30 JANUARY 2023
ISSUE 3,924
THEY’RE BACK CELEBRATING AWARDS2023 THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST IN THE CITY P10
CITYAM.COM
PUTIN WARNING Boris claims Kremlin threatened missile strike
PM LOOKS TO MOVE ON FROM PENALTY ROW CHRIS DORRELL NADHIM Zahawi was sacked by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday after weeks of speculation about the Conservative party chair’s tax affairs. Sunak told Zahawi, 55, that, after an independent investigation, “it is clear that there has been a serious breach of the Ministerial Code,” forcing him to ditch the MP for Stratfordon-Avon. Sunak’s letter said he wanted his government to “have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level,” a promise he made when entering Number 10 late last year. Zahawi should be “extremely proud” of his Nadhim Zahawi was sacked yesterday morning
“wide-ranging achievements”, Sunak wrote, in particular of his stewardship of the successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout. The former Chancellor has been in the spotlight for weeks over an estimated £4.8m bill he settled with the taxman while Chancellor. The bill related to the sale of shares in YouGov, the polling business founded by Zahawi in 2000. The probe into Zahawi’s tax affairs was carried out by Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s ethics adviser. Magnus wrote that the failure to include the HMRC investigation in his register of interests and the failure to update it – as well as describing stories last year
on his tax affairs as “smears” – counted as “insufficient regard for the general principles of the Ministerial Code and the requirements in particular to be honest, open and an exemplary leader.” Zahawi is the second high profile Cabinet minister to lose his seat at Sunak’s top table, with Gavin Williamson quitting in November after a series of lurid headlines over bullying. This week Sunak will reach the milestone of 100 days in Downing Street. Last night former Chancellor George Osborne warned that Rishi Sunak was failing to land his message with the electorate due to scandals such as Zahawi’s tax affairs. “It’s still ‘we’ll see’ with Rishi Sunak, but he knows that as each week passes, as each new scandal unfolds, the window for action gets smaller and smaller,” he said on The Andrew Neil Show.
JAMES SILVER VLADIMIR Putin told Boris Johnson that it “would only take a minute” to hit him with a missile, according to the former Prime Minister. “Boris, I don’t want to hurt you,” Johnson recounted the Kremlin tyrant saying to him when they spoke before the invasion of Ukraine. “But with a missile, it would only take a minute,” Putin continued, according to Johnson’s account.
The Uxbridge MP, who has become a cheerleader for support for the Ukrainian regime since leaving office, described the conversation with the Russian leader as “extraordinary”. It is nearly a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, expecting a quick victory and radically underestimating the strength of Ukrainian resistance which continues to this day. Johnson recounts the conversation in a BBC programme to be shown this evening, Putin vs the West.
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