Rishi Sunak under pressure after sacking Nadhim Zahawi over tax storm

Nadhim Zahawi complained that the media had gone beyond legitimate scrutiny of his tax affairs. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Rishi Sunak has sacked the Conservative party chair, Nadhim Zahawi, for serious breaches of the ministerial code over his tax affairs, after weeks of damaging headlines undermined the prime minister’s attempts to restore government integrity.

An investigation by Sunak’s new ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that Zahawi had broken the rules by repeatedly failing to declare an HMRC investigation into his tax affairs, which concluded with a £5m settlement including a penalty.