Sunak fires Zahawi citing ethics breach

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired Nadhim Zahawi, citing “serious” breaches of ethics rules after revelations about the Conservative Party chairman’s tax affairs made his position untenable.
In a letter to Zahawi on Sunday, Sunak said that the independent review of the matter had been concluded and “it is clear that there has been a serious breach of the Ministerial Code. As a result, I have informed you of my decision to remove you from your position.”
Zahawi had acknowledged he’d been “careless” with his taxes and had settled a retroactive multi-million pound bill with the country’s tax collector. That — and the revelation that he’d also incurred a tax penalty for not paying the right amount at the correct time led to mounting pressure from within his own party for him to quit, or for Sunak to fire him.
The lengthy controversy had threatened to knock Sunak’s administration off-course, distracting from his stated priority of reviving the moribund British economy as well as his bid to reverse the slump in the Tories’ prospects two years before a general election.
The situation allowed Labour leader Keir Starmer, whose party currently holds a wide lead over the Conservatives, to accuse Sunak of being “hopelessly weak” and to draw a link between the party chairman’s tax affairs and Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty, who had enjoyed so-called non-dom tax status in the UK.