Zahawi

[SydneyRover]

Maybe it's time the tax office went for a deeper dive through the top 1%

[SydneyRover]

Hound
Off the top of me head, here's a list of some recent cabinet members:

Zahawi
Gove
Hancock
Patel
Schapps
Braverman
Williamson
Truss
Jenrick
Raab
Kwarteng
Some of them are dishonest at best, some of them useless, some bullies and in Raab's case, a thick as pudding bully.
So yes they all need kicking out. The lot of em, including those that are shocking omissions on my part.

Grayling is pretty high on the list of incompetents, further to that johnson tried to subvert the security committee and stick him in as chair to delay the release of the committees Russia Report, breath taking arrogance from the then chief of the fiefdom.

''A furious Downing Street stripped the Conservative whip from Lewis, an MP since 1997, who hit back by saying that No 10 had made “an improper request” in trying to get him to support Grayling for the position.

Lewis then led the publication of the long-awaited Russia report, which revealed that British government and intelligence agencies failed to conduct any proper assessment of Kremlin attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum''

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/28/chris-grayling-resigns-from

[drfchound]

Syd, why is a two years old article about Grayling relevant on a thread about Zahawi.

[SydneyRover]

Just a thought TT we could make a Sticky of the list along with all with their misdemeanours and failures. We may have to see if the forum can handle that amount of data though.

[Donnywolf]

There actually is in circulation a leaked listing (up to the point of the leak) which the Tory Whips used to keep the Maps voting the "right way"

It documented their main faults that the Whips could threaten them with though they were not things like " thick as Pudding" but more factual or believed by them to be close enough to facts

Sure someone could find that as I'm off for a Hot Air Fryer rather than adding more hot air on here

[BillyStubbsTears]

The way this generation of Tories simply disregard the truth is really something to see.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64358025

Zahawi has very much NOT been transparent. His lawyers repeatedly tried to frighten off someone investigating Zahawi's taxes, by lying that Zahawi had paid all the tax he owed, and threatening legal action if the investigator said anything to the contrary.

The man is a disgrace. A rich, powerful cheat, liar and attempted bully. Sums up this generation of Tories.

[SydneyRover]

It's sunak job to chuck him out if he won't go, so much for integrity, tax avoidance is a family affair in the tory party.

[Filo]

It's sunak job to chuck him out if he won't go, so much for integrity, tax avoidance is a family affair in the tory party.

Sunak is weak, and that goes against the “Mr Nice Gut” image he tries to portray, I had him sussed the first time he did those nightly covid briefings, everything about him is false

[SydneyRover]

If the tory party were a private company they would have been charged with racketeering and conspiracy by now.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Oh dear.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64360260

His defence appears to be that his father gave him the start up capital to set up YouGov, and as a result, the You Gov shares were placed in the Balshore Investments offshore trust.

This tweet and the 3-4 subsequent ones from a tax Investigator who has delved deep into this issue calls that out as direct lie.

https://twitter.com/DanNeidle/status/1616030751790878720?s=20&t=NfRqN0cMqYsn1abV0tXbxg

Zahawi has today said "I have never set up an offshore structure, including Balshore Investments, and that I am not the beneficiary of Balshore Investments."

Which is strange.

Because the core of this issue is that in 2018, Balshore sold its stake in YouGov for £26m. Because Balshore was an overseas fund, it paid no capital gains tax (which would have been £3.7m in the UK) on that.

And this is where the net closes in. Balshore then immediately made a "loan" to Zahawi.

Have a guess how much.




No go on.



Have a guess.



Yep. £26m.

He paid no tax on that.

And it is this that the HMRC have fingered him for. He's been told to pay the full amount of CGT, plus a fine of 30% of that amount because he clearly rode roughshod over the rules.

Politically he's a dead man walking. A tax fraud and a liar. That statement he's just made can be ripped apart by anyone with the slightest knowledge of the case. If Sunak has any political instincts, he will hand him the pearl handled revolver today. Otherwise, this is a gift for Labour.

[BillyStubbsTears]

And THIS is how much of a liar and a fraud he is.

He was being investigated over this last summer by HMRC, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

At that time, an investigator, not connected to the case, but publishing a blog in the public interest, accused him of not paying what he owed. Zahawi's lawyers sent him a threatening letter, accusing him of libel and saying Zahawi had paid all his taxes. Even though Zahawi himself knew at the time that HMRC were investigating a clear cut case of him not paying his taxes.

What a poster boy for this generation of Tory leaders. See what you can get away with. If anyone tries stopping you, threaten them with legal action and financial ruin, then when you get caught, plead innocence and ignorance.

[Donnywolf]

Unchaste (anag.)

[SydneyRover]

And sent sent lots of others similar threatening letters to try and keep it under wraps ..............

[SydneyRover]

From the twitter feed this is so important in the whole seedy affair:

Dan Deidle

''This morning I wrote to the Solicitors’ Regulatory Authority, asking them to end the practice of solicitors sending libel letters demanding that allegations of wrongdoing are retracted, but insisting that the letters are confidential and cannot be published, or even mentioned.

This follows the letters I received from Osborne Clarke, acting for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. More context here, and legal background to the bogus “confidentiality” claims here''

https://www.taxpolicy.org.uk/2022/07/25/sra/

Lawyers knowing sending out false information on behalf of their clients.

Edited:

Further down in the back story a win .................

''29 November 2022. A great response from the SRA. They issue a warning for solicitors to stop sending libel letters which falsely claim to be confidential, and say they can’t be published. It’s not a change in practice, it’s a statement of what has always been the case – lawyers can’t lie''

(SRA) Solicitors Regulation Authority

[SydneyRover]

And the next question: did he or his government mislead parliament

[SydneyRover]

''Nadhim Zahawi has financial ties to Balshore Investments and Berkford Investments, which operate from a lawyers’ office in Gibraltar. He does not declare a connection to either company on the MPs’ register of interests.

Balshore Investments holds shares worth over £20m in YouGov, the polling firm co-founded by Zahawi in 2000. YouGov company documents have referred to Balshore as “the family trust of Nadhim Zahawi’s family”.

Under parliamentary rules MPs have to declare any shareholding valued at more than £70,000, including those owned through a trust. The Stratford-upon-Avon MP did not answer questions over whether he was a beneficiary of a trust and said that everything had been correctly declared in the MPs’ register of interests''

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/04/tory-mp-nadhim-zahawi-tax-haven-balshore-berkford-investments-gibraltar

This was published Jan 4 2017

DD

''2 December 2022. Given the clear statement from the SRA, I refer Zahawi’s lawyers, Osborne Clarke, to the SRA. Lying and bullying should have consequences''

[BillyStubbsTears]

Zahawi's line is that the YG shares in Balshore actually belonged to his father.

Which could be believed if it weren't for the fact that the moment Balshore sold the YG shares for £26m in 2018, Balshore then loaned  Zahawi £26m to buy property.

You might just about grit your teeth and accept that as being within the letter of the law. But it is dodgy as f**k. And HMRC have cleared decided that it was a tax fiddle. They've decided Zahawi owned the shares in reality, and benefited from them when they were sold. That's why they have hit him with a tax bill. And a fine for tax dodging.

He hasn't got a chance of surviving this as a Cabinet Minister. Like I said earlier, a sharp PM would boot him out now.

But of course, Sunak's family has previous on offshore tax haven investments, so perhaps he's instinctively on Zahawi's side? Or shitting himself that when Zahawi has gone, the spotlight might turn back on him and his wife.

[BillyStubbsTears]

By the way, the reason Zahawi is politically dead in the water is that his best argument today is that his tax mistake was "careless rather than deliberate".

Not sure who he expects to believe that.  He "carelessly" didn't realise that he'd set up a mechanism to evade paying £4m tax?

If that really is the best defence he can think of, he's going to get savaged.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Banana Republic Part 78.

The Sunday Times has a scoop that Johnson got a loan of £800k in late 2020 that he has never reported in the Parliamentary records.

It was set up by a wealthy Tory donor.

Who, a few weeks later, was appointed by Johnson as Chair of the BBC.

Goebbels used to say, "If you're going to lie, lie big." That seems to be the philosophy of the top of the Tory party. If you're going to scam the system, do it big and do it often. 30% of the electorate will support you no matter how bent you are.

[SydneyRover]

Yep read that one earlier, the tories are writing labour's script for the next election.

plus javid is flying kites about payments to visit a gp or hospital ..............

[ravenrover]

HMRC use the term careless instead of negligent.
Anyone thinking he will resign or be sacked I would advise not to hold their breath.
The Foreign Sec comes on telly with the old Fawlty Towers line " I know noooothing" so much for preparing in advance or as IDS said just dropping a dead bat on it

[wilts rover]

Zahawi in July 2022: I am being "smeared" by those who say HMRC are looking into me. I am "not aware of this."

Zahawi in Jan 2023: in fact, HMRC were investigating my tax affairs and I have settled my dispute with them.

So much for Sunak's promise to bring 'integrity and accountability' into his government.

https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1617089236880035840

[Donnywolf]

HMRC use the term careless instead of negligent.
Anyone thinkibg he will resign or be sacked I would advise not to hold their breath.
The Foreign Sec comrs on telly with the old Fawlty Towers line " I know noooothing" so much preparing in advance or as IDS said just dropping a dead bat on it

I just wonder how Politics got so rotten

Not that many years ago the men in grey suits would have pounced and said to Zahawi " its time to go for the sake of the Party"

These days they don't seem to care at all about the so called "optics"

[ravenrover]

Oh deary deary me!

[BillyStubbsTears]

I'm still shaking my head at how Zahawi thinks that "I was just careless" defence will stand.

"Sorry that, when I was involved in a process that evaded £3.7m in tax payments through a convoluted process, I didn't think to check with a reputable tax accountant or with HMRC whether what I was doing was legal.  That was just careless of me. But hey! Who hasn't made a careless mistake over £3.7m of unpaid tax?"

[idler]

All of these politicians always make the silly mistakes in their favour though. None of them ever say well I had to claim back x amount that I mistakenly paid without realising.

[BillyStubbsTears]

On the subject of "carelessness", the HMRC (which Zahawi was in charge of while this was going on) has a formal definition.

"“Careless” means a failure to take reasonable care in relation to your tax affairs.

Carelessness can be likened to the longstanding concept in general law of “negligence”.

In the 1856 case of Blyth v Birmingham Waterworks Co, Baron Alderson said

Negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do. The defendants might be liable for negligence, if, unintentionally, they omitted to do that which a prudent and reasonable person would have done, or did that which a person taking reasonable care would not have done.

This is not a question of whether or not the person knew about an inaccuracy in a return or document or their failure to comply with an obligation. If they did that would be deliberate. It is simply a question of examining what the person did or failed to do and asking whether a prudent and reasonable person taking reasonable care would have done that or failed to do that in those circumstances."

Zahawi is admitting that he didn't do what a "prudent and reasonable person" would do over this.

[i_ateallthepies]

It is striking, the absence of comment on this particular matter from certain regular contributors on this forum.

[ncRover]

I wouldn’t believe anything Zahawi says.

https://twitter.com/nadhimzahawi/status/1349116738454122499?s=46&t=RXbTkX87KGB1dcIq2x20bg

“We have no plans to introduce vaccine passports”
“Can we hold you to that?”
“Yes you can Claire”

Discriminatory and illiberal vaccine passports later introduced whilst he was head of vaccine deployment.

[ncRover]

It is striking, the absence of comment on this particular matter from certain regular contributors on this forum.

Such as?

It’s a fast moving political story. I’m normally behind other posters on these that doesn’t make me pro-tax evasion for not having anything further to add yet!