No 10 declines to say Sunak confident Zahawi has always told him truth about his tax affairs – as it happened

Nadhim Zahawi leaves CCHQ, London, England, United Kingdom - 24 Jan 2023 Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

5.40pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Downing Street has said that it wants the inquiry by its ethics adviser into Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair, to conclude “swiftly”. Last night Caroline Nokes, a Tory former minister, said Zahawi should stand aside while the inquiry takes place. Zahawi has not taken her advice, he remains in office, and there have been no futher high-profile calls for his resignation from Conservatives. But government MPs have not been giving him their full support either and, in a sign that No 10 may be happy to see him go, the PM’s spokesperson declined to say that Rishi Sunak was confident Zahawi had always told him the truth about his tax affairs. (See 12.32pm.)

• Richard Sharp has insisted he had no conflict of interest when he was appointed the chair of the BBC by Boris Johnson, despite allegations he helped secure a loan of up to £800,000 for the prime minister only a week earlier.

• British lawyers were given government dispensation to bypass sanctions in order to help Yevgeny Prigozhin, the controversial Russian businessman and Wagner group founder, sue a journalist, according to documents made available to the website Open Democracy.

• The archbishop of York has called for checks on “unscrupulous people making profit inappropriately” from social care as the Church of England launched a sweeping plan to reform how vulnerable people are looked after.

• Almost one in 10 local bus services were axed in Great Britain in the last year despite the government having promised to improve local transport connectivity as a key pillar of its levelling up agenda.

Nadhim Zahawi leaving Conservative party HQ earlier today. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated at 7.26pm GMT

5.40pm GMT

From Sandra Glab from Times Radio

💥NEW: Lord Evans, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life tells @JPonpolitics Cabinet Secretary Simon Case should have made sure it's known Richard Sharp had a role in a private loan to the PM who gave him the job. @TimesRadio

— Sandra Glab (@glabsandra) January 24, 2023