Lana Fawzi Jamil Saib Wiki, Biography
Lana Fawzi Jamil Saib is the wife of Nadhim Zahawri, Rishi Sunak has sacked Conservative Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi after he was found to have breached the ministerial code by failing to declare the HMRC investigation into his tax affairs.
An inquiry by the prime minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that Zahawi had committed a “serious breach” of the code by failing to tell officials that he was under investigation by the tax body when Boris Johnson appointed him chancellor.
He also had not officially stated that he paid a settlement to HMRC for tax evasion when Liz Truss gave him cabinet posts last September and when Sunak appointed him Conservative chairman and minister without portfolio in September.
His departure comes after a damaging few weeks for Sunak, who had promised “integrity, professionalism and accountability at all levels” of his government upon entering No. 10 but faced growing calls to fire Zahawi over his fiscal affairs.
Sunak’s judgment to reappoint Zahawi has been questioned by some Conservative MPs, while others felt the prime minister, who acted within hours of receiving Magnus’s report on Sunday morning, should have sacked him sooner.
He also continues to face scrutiny over what he knew about the minister’s fiscal affairs and when, amid suggestions that he was told there might be a reputational risk to the government when he appointed him in October.
His deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, is also under investigation on allegations of bullying, while Johnson, the former prime minister, faces an inquiry by the high-stakes Commons privileges committee into whether he misled parliament over the Partygate scandal.
Zahawi had faced numerous questions in parliament and the media after it emerged in early January that he had agreed to pay an estimated £5m in a deal with HMRC. The Guardian later reported that the minister had paid a fine as part of the deal.
In a letter to the Tory party chairman, Sunak said his ethics adviser had concluded there was a “serious breach” of the ministerial code. “As a result, I have informed him of my decision to remove him from his position in His Majesty’s Government,” he said.
In his own letter to the prime minister, Zahawi did not apologize or explicitly mention the findings of the ethics inquiry into his tax affairs, suggesting that he planned to remain as an MP “for years to come”, despite calls to resign. .
However, he expressed concern about the conduct of some media outlets in recent weeks, which he said went beyond legitimate scrutiny of his tax affairs. He highlighted an article in The Independent, headlined “The noose is tightening”, which dealt with calls by fellow Conservative MPs for him to resign.
Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Portillo said it was “commendable” that Sunak had wanted to go through the proper processes. However, he told GB News: “This has been in the headlines for days on end and it has been doing terrible damage to the government, him and the party.
“I think he had a chance to get rid of him before. So I think the PM will face some criticism for taking so long… It pains me to say this, but I think overall it makes Rishi look weak.”
David Cameron’s communications director at Issue 10, Sir Craig Oliver, tweeted: “The PM finally comes to the obvious and unavoidable conclusion by sacking Nadhim Zahawi. Rishi Sunak did not know anything this morning that he did not know a week ago: he will regret feeling unable to face some deputies; instead, he further hurt the Conservatives brand.”
Cabinet minister Michael Gove defended Sunak’s decision to refer the matter to an ethics inquiry before sacking Zahawi. “As a general rule, I think it is important that when allegations are made they are promptly investigated, but we should also not rush to judgment before there has been that investigation,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
HMRC’s investigation into Zahawi began in April 2021, including a meeting with the minister and his advisers in June 2021. Zahawi told the ethics adviser that he “got the impression” he was simply being asked questions about his tax matters. But Magnus said Zahawi should have understood that he was under serious investigation.
The minister did not declare the HMRC investigation to the permanent secretary to the Treasury after his appointment as chancellor by Johnson on 5 July 2022. At the time, the investigation had been ongoing for over a year; however, Zahawi only updated his statement on July 15, 2022.
Zahawi committed a second violation of the ministerial code by failing to disclose the fact that he had paid a fine for tax evasion when he was first appointed to Liz Truss’ cabinet last September and then to Sunak’s in October.
He had settled with HMRC in August 2022, but it wasn’t until January this year that details surfaced in the media, with The Guardian telling The Guardian that he had paid a fine imposed by HMRC.
In his letter to Sunak, the ethics adviser said: “Taken together, I consider these omissions to be a serious breach of the standards set out in the ministerial code.”
Zahawi issued a statement the day after HMRC’s sanction of him came to light, saying the tax office had concluded that he had made a “careless but not deliberate” error.
But his statement raised as many questions as it answered, calling into question earlier comments, including July’s assurance that his taxes were “paid in full and up to date,” and letters from lawyers threatening legal action against journalists who said they this was potentially not the case.
In his letter to the prime minister, Magnus said Zahawi had failed to disclose relevant information, in this case the nature of the HMRC investigation and its result in a sanction, at the time of his appointment to the cabinet by Truss and Sunak. .
“Without knowledge of that information, the cabinet office was not in a position to inform the nominating prime minister,” he added.
However, sources told the Observer that senior officials gave Sunak informal advice on the reputational risks of appointing Zahawi given the HMRC investigation, during the period when the prime minister was forming his new cabinet. Downing Street strongly denied receiving an informal warning about Zahawi’s finances.
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