A Spender, Not a Payer

It appears that Nadhim Zahawi, the horse-warming party chair and former stopgap chancellor, may have taken premature advantage of the low-tax, deregulated paradise which awaits us on the sunlit uplands. The Murdoch Scumbag on Sunday proclaimed that Zahawi paid a few million in back taxes after HMRC had a rare attack of zeal and raised, as they say, questions. While there is no reason at all for the Murdoch press to call a man a crook just because he happens to be one, Zahawi has not denied the report and, with exemplary Conservative moral courage, chose to absent himself from the House of Claimants today while Fishy Rishi dodged questions on his behalf. Since it remains as yet unclear whether Zahawi paid up before or after having his collar felt, or whether any formal investigation took place, or whether penalties were imposed, the state of his tax affairs is good enough for all the right sort of people.