Starmer: The prime minister’s job is “too big” for Sunak after his failure to sack Zahawi

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Nadeem Al-Zahawi believes he “didn’t do anything wrong”, said a Conservative MP who spoke to the Tory chairman yesterday.

Pim Afolami said he “spent a great deal of time talking to” Mr Zahawi in the House of Commons during yesterday’s vote.

Asked what Mr Zahawi had said, Afolami told TalkTV: “He was making the point, not only to me but to many other colleagues as well, that in fact he did nothing wrong.

“It’s the norm that people sell businesses that they themselves and their accountant make the judgment of what happens, how much tax they owe, pay that tax, and HMRC is of course within their rights to contest that, and then sometimes there’s a debate and then finally it decides that.

“That’s what happened, he paid what he was due to pay, he didn’t challenge their final decision, and he’ll now have the opportunity with the Independent Ministerial Ethics Adviser to make his case, which is really important. An opportunity because, I’m afraid, look, I love the media a lot, However, sometimes it is in the interest of the media to stir up a story about appropriate payments that may or may not have been made.”

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