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Does anyone believe Nadhim Zahawi?

(297 Posts)
foxie48 Sun 22-Jan-23 13:55:01

I genuinely like to give people the benefit of the doubt if I don't know all the facts but really, does anyone believe NZ made a "careless mistake" with his tax arrangements? If he has paid the reported £4.3m (including a 30% fine) that means he underpaid by over £3m. How can this be a careless mistake? He may have a degree in chemical engineering, so he's fairly numerate but surely he'd have had accountants advising him? The whole things reeks of tax avoidance if it isn't then he should make his returns available to an independent committee or resign. I see BJ is back in the news, I'm still waiting to find out why he travelled to Italy in 2018 to meet the KGB agent Lebedev without his minders when he was Foreign Secretary.

Grantanow Mon 23-Jan-23 08:45:49

Of course I don't believe him: he's a Tory. As Rachel Johnson said surely with all his money he has a white hot accountant so he doesn't make careless mistakes.

MaizieD Mon 23-Jan-23 08:50:26

MerylStreep

I don’t know why the tories don’t just hold their hands up and say, ok, it’s a fair cop, you’ve found us out, here’s the keys to No 10 😄. Why prolong the pain.

Because they're determined to leave Labour with as huge a mess as possible to clear up, in order to make political capital from their inevitably slow progress. They're looking to win the next GE but one (2029?)

And they might as well extract the maximum possible amount of money from the UK's coffers for themselves and their mates before they go.

25Avalon Mon 23-Jan-23 09:00:50

MaizieD I don’t believe they are out to extract the maximum amount of money before they go. I think it’s more a way of life with some of them. In or out of government they will be up to tricks. I’m not sure Labour will be that much better. I despair of all politics.

DiamondLily Mon 23-Jan-23 09:36:38

Of course he's lying.

He's a government minister of the most sleazy government in modern history - when their lips move, they are lying.

How daft do they think we are?🙄

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 09:59:50

James O'Brien

One major legacy of Boris Johnson's premiership is that 'styling out' a scandal, no matter how egregious, in the hope that it will go away is now the default position for Tory government. The fact that Zahawi threatened to sue people for correct reporting should be career-ending.

I think that this hits the nail on the head. Look at Johnson just this weekend. Scandal about £800k loan etc. what does he do? Fly to ukraine and get the headlines - for what? There is nothing he can possibly do. It was all about dead cats.

foxie48 Mon 23-Jan-23 10:11:44

It seems pretty clear, doesn't it? It doesn't matter where we stand on the political spectrum, we all think he should resign. I wonder how representative we are of British voters, I suspect pretty close. This scandal is not going away, anyone want to bet on how much longer he lasts?

Wheniwasyourage Mon 23-Jan-23 10:54:36

Well, foxie48, the headlines so far suggest that he is determined to hang on. I'm waiting for the ones saying that Rishi Sunak has full confidence in him, as that usually means that he's on his way out. grin

Ramblingrose22 Mon 23-Jan-23 13:30:50

I think any decision to sack Zahawi will be delayed now that Sunak has asked the ethics adviser to look into whether any code was breached.

But as the conclusions of the ethics adviser can be totally ignored by the PM I doubt if the investigation will serve any useful purpose.

I hope I'm wrong though.

MaizieD Mon 23-Jan-23 13:34:14

I suspect you are correct, Ramblingrose22. The report will not see the light of day for a considerable time, or not at all.

NotSpaghetti Mon 23-Jan-23 13:39:27

"careless" has a specific meaning in tax law.
It is not "careless" in the ordinary meaning. In fact it can be completely deliberate.
It apparently includes not giving the full financial information to your accountant, ignoring your financial advisor and a number of other potentially deliberate things.

Caleo Mon 23-Jan-23 13:40:19

I don't believe in Nadhim Zahawi. Nadhim Zahawi is a figment of imagination invented by socialists to make the Tories look even worse.

NotSpaghetti Mon 23-Jan-23 13:42:32

There may be a tax specialist here on Gransnet that knows this better than I do?
I only just heard the person who had been asking the initial questions about him talking about it on the radio. I hadn't understood that carelessness had a special meaning. It was very interesting.

Curlywhirly Mon 23-Jan-23 13:42:35

I'm not a Tory voter (far from it) but I can't see Sunak ignoring a negative conclusion by the ethics advisors regarding Zahawi's behaviour; Johnson got so much bad press when he chose to do nothing when the advisors found that Pritti Patel had broken the ministerial code (regarding the bullying of her staff). I think Sunak is more bothered about his reputation than Johnson ever was.

Fleurpepper Mon 23-Jan-23 13:52:39

LOL Caleo!

Grantanow Mon 23-Jan-23 16:53:53

Probably in the long grass for a few weeks!

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:01:19

Dan Neidle says that he is looking at other MPs tax affairs.

I reckon Mogg is one, and possibly Johnson.

LadyGracie Mon 23-Jan-23 17:02:17

Name an honest politician.

GrannyGravy13 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:03:52

Whitewavemark2

Dan Neidle says that he is looking at other MPs tax affairs.

I reckon Mogg is one, and possibly Johnson.

I wonder if he will look at Labour politicians?

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:04:38

More a question as who is wealthy with known off shore businesses.

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:14:02

This is exactly what I suspect. We will never know most of what has gone on.

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:17:04

More questions for Zahawi

Neidle

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:19:20

Blimey the BBC seems to be growing a pair.

Richard Murphy just been wheeled in to comment on the Zahawi tax affairs.

volver Mon 23-Jan-23 17:27:08

LadyGracie

Name an honest politician.

How long do you have? Let's start here...

Wendy Chamberlain
Willie Rennie
Pete Wishart
Philippa Whitford
Jackie Baillie
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Alison Johnstone
Richard Leonard

At what point will people realise that suggesting that all politicians are crooks tells us more about them than it does abut politicians?

Whitewavemark2 Mon 23-Jan-23 17:34:31

Chris Bryant
Peter Kylie
Hilary Benn
Dawn Butler
Stella Creasy

Off the top of my head - there will of course be others

volver Mon 23-Jan-23 17:46:55

Yes WWM2, but what have the Romans ever done for us? 🤣