British Prime Minister fires party chairman after investigation into tax case

British Prime Minister Sunak has sacked Conservative Party chairman Zahawi. After an independent investigation, Sunak concludes that Zahawi is guilty of a gross violation of the ministerial code. Zahawi had been under fire for some time because of a tax case during his time as finance minister, when he was de facto head of the tax authorities.

Zahawi, originally from Iraq and Kurdish, is one of the founders of YouGov, one of Britain’s leading polling agencies. His net worth is estimated at around 100 million pounds. He recently admitted that during his time as finance minister, from July to September last year, he had to pay a fine to the tax authorities for an unpaid tax bill.

Zahawi said a “reckless, but unintentional” mistake had been made in YouGov’s corporate structure, causing something to go wrong in the tax payment. According to the BBC, he had to pay about 5 million pounds including a fine. In the past, Zahawi has tried to silence journalists about this, for example by threatening a lawsuit.

So now he has to leave the field after the findings of the independent ethics adviser to the British government. He accuses Zahawi of not informing then Prime Minister Truss and her successor Sunak of the tax authorities’ investigation into him and of the fine he had to pay.

Zahawi had been chairman of the Conservative Party since October last year. In times of corona, he was responsible for the national vaccination program. He was then Minister of Education and briefly Minister of Finance.