Rishi Sunak Sacks Nadhim Zahawi

Spending nearly four months in office, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has already undertaken major decisions, including the dismissal of Nadhim Zahawi, a leading Member of Parliament since 2010. Zahawi is an Iraqiborn British politician, who has occupied various ministerial positions under four prime ministers: Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and most recently Mr Sunak himself In addition to that, he has also served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from the 25th of October 2022 until the 7th of February 2023

Despite Zahawi’s extensive experience in the political field, he fell below the Parliament’s high standards by carelessly failing to declare his involvement in YouGov, a market research and data analytics firm which he co-founded.

Zahawi’s tax affairs were amid investigation since last summer, before the removal of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, and Johnson himself was alerted about the affairs by the Cabinet’s Office Propriety and Ethics Team but chose to ignore them. However, considering his recent repayment to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), plus a penalty, this matter can hardly be neglected.

Although Zahawi took no shares in YouGov, his father’s Gibraltar-based company Balshore investments previously held 42 5% of its shares before they were sold for approximately 27 million pounds between 2006 and 2018, with an estimated avoidance of 3.7 million pounds in capital gains tax. Zahawi claimed that he made no earnings from these shares and added that HMRC had agreed he had never set up an offshore structure, declaring that "I am not the beneficiary of Balshore Investments''. However, his team refused to comment on whether he had previously benefited from the company.

Sunak couldn’t withstand further scrutiny from the public - following him being fined for not wearing a seatbelt and MPs' disagreement with his rejection of tax cuts - and hence requested further investigation into Zahawi’s tax matters by Sir Laurie Magnus. After careful deliberation, Zahawi was removed from his position in His Majesty’s Government, in the face of his claims of innocence.