Nadhim Zahawi should resign as chairman of the Tory party says HMRC investigator
21 January 2023, 16:19 | Updated: 21 January 2023, 16:20
LBC: Nadhim Zahawi should resign as chairman of the Tory party says HMRC investigator
HMRC investigator demands that Nadhim Zahawi resigns as Chairman of the Tory party after paying a deliberate penalty fine.
Tory Chairman Nadhim Zahawi has been under pressure this week over his tax affairs. It has been revealed by The Guardian that Mr Zahawi paid a 30% penalty, taking the estimated total to more than £4.8 million.
An LBC caller, who happened to work for HMRC as an investigator, demanded that the Tory Chairman "resign" whilst talking to Sangita Myska.
The investigator of 40 years, Ben in Islington, said: "If we're going on the figures that have been published it's in the 30% range. Now the penalty regime and the HMRC, bear in mind inland revenue hasn't existed for about the last 18 years, HMRC's penalties range from a mistake, to careless, to deliberate, to deliberate and concealed.
A 30% penalty is in the deliberate range...at the end of the day as a first time offender, you would hope, he would have a suspended penalty therefore he wouldn't have paid it. He's had to pay this one so it must have been deliberate."
Ben went on to say: "He's paid a deliberate penalty, he should be on the list of deliberate defaulters. Which will disqualify from being a director or a CEO which would mean resignation as Chairman of the Tory party."
Zahawi has brushed off Labours calls to resign claiming his error was 'careless, not deliberate'.
