UK’s Sunak Fires Zahawi Over Taxes, Citing Ethics Breach Transcript

It’s been three months into the Rishi Sunak government. Yet another blow here. What sort of blowback is Sunak facing on this?

Dani, good morning to you, and you’re absolutely right. Nearly 100 days of Rishi Sunak in the top job, and we saw yesterday that he had to fire Nadhim Zahawi, who was the chairman of the party. And this is really a difficult position for Rishi Sunak, because when we saw him come onto the steps of number 10, he promised a different government. Really away from the Tory sleaze that we had seen under Boris Johnson, where we saw that Partygate scandal and lots of other affairs happen.

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However, he’s been plagued. Yesterday, we found out that Nadhim Zahawi had broken the Ministerial Code, but it still took the Prime Minister eight days to fire him. And now Labour have serious ammunition, saying that Rishi Sunak is a weak leader. And he cannot get a grip of the rot in the party. And as we know, Nadhim Zahawi’s had to pay over £5 million in taxes. And that’s for a sale of shares in the company that he does own, called YouGov, which is a polling company here in the UK, Dani. And, ironically, YouGov, the polling company, does show that Labour is well ahead of the Conservatives when we look at the polls.

Right, yeah. And we’re looking at a quote right now where Rishi Sunak calls it, “A serious breach of the Ministerial Code.” This is, of course, in his letter to Zahawi, letting him go. And, Leigh-Ann, you put it so rightly, the fact that they’re already coming from perhaps… Not perhaps, a disadvantage in the polls. Already Labour has such massive support. So what’s next then for the ruling party?

So things are going to be a little bit difficult. Today, we know that Rishi Sunak is going to be on a charm offensive over the NHS, as he does pledge more when it comes to helping the beleaguered, real National Health Service in this country. We also know, Dani, that we’ve been plagued by strikes. We’re going to see more of them this week. And things could get more difficult for Rishi Sunak. That’s because his Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, is also facing an ethics inquiry into bullying allegations within the government. Now, those are going to come to light in the next couple of weeks. However, Rishi Sunak is remaining absolutely resilient, and he’s moving forward. But we must also remember, another headache for the government really is this ongoing cost of living crisis. And on Thursday, a lot of economists and analysts are expecting the BoE to hike interest rates by another half a point. So things are going to become a little bit more difficult, moving into the future. But as I said, 24 hours is a long day in politics, Dani.

It sure is.