Summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s stories from Westminster:
Nadhim Zahawi has authorised HM Revenue and Customs to pass details of his tax affairs to the prime minister’s ethics adviser - who is investigating if he broke the rules for ministers – as Rishi Sunak continued to resist calls to sack him. Pressure on the Tory party chairman, who has admitted paying a penalty as part of an estimated £4.8m settlement with HMRC, intensified after the head of the organisation said such penalties were not issued for “innocent errors”, PA reported.
The head of HM Revenue and Customs has told MPs there are “no penalties for innocent errors” in relation to tax affairs, raising further questions about the circumstances that led to the Conservative party chair, Nadhim Zahawi, being fined by the tax office. HMRC’s chief executive, Jim Harra, said his department did not penalise taxpayers who were deemed to have taken “reasonable care”.
Dominic Raab is facing a much broader bullying investigation than originally anticipated with at least 24 civil servants involved in formal complaints against him, the Guardian understands. Government insiders believe the depth of the inquiry and severity of some of the claims means the deputy prime minister will struggle to survive in post, and it throws further doubt on Rishi Sunak’s judgment for having him in such a senior position.
Boris Johnson could get more taxpayers’ money to cover extra legal support as the inquiry into his Partygate denials drags on, it has emerged. The cost of helping the former prime minister defend himself over claims he misled parliament about law-breaking parties during Covid “could potentially exceed” the current £222,000 budget, a senior civil servant admitted.
An independent MP who lost the Tory whip after appearing to compare Covid vaccines to the Holocaust is suing Matt Hancock for criticising his remarks. Andrew Bridgen is suing the former health secretary for £100,000 over a tweet in which Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting “antisemitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories” over the vaccine. Bridgen was widely condemned for making the comments, by MPs and campaigners from all parties.
The head of the inquiry into the Windrush debacle has expressed disappointment after Suella Braverman confirmed she has dropped three key reform commitments made after the Home Office scandal. The home secretary said she would not implement two changes that would have increased independent scrutiny of the Home Office’s immigration policies and a third promise to run reconciliation events with Windrush families.
Isla Bryson, a transgender woman found guilty of raping two women before transitioning, will not be imprisoned in Scotland’s all-female Cornton Vale prison, Nicola Sturgeon has told the Scottish parliament. The first minister confirmed Bryson would not be incarcerated in the women’s prison “either short-term or long-term”, after a report saying the offender had been transferred there on Tuesday prior to sentencing prompted outrage across the political and campaigning spectrum. Bryson was expected to be moved to a male prison on Thursday.
The UK climate minister – who recently stated not all fossil fuels were the “spawn of the devil” – received campaign donations from one of the largest fuel distributors in the UK as well as an aviation consultant and recruiter, it has emerged. Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, was appointed climate minister by Rishi Sunak in September. He has responsibility for net zero strategy and low carbon generation, and is the Commons lead for clean heat.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Boris Johnson has disclosed that he has received an advance of more than £500,000 for his forthcoming memoirs.
The former prime minister’s latest entry in the Register of Members’ Interests states he “received £510,000 as an advance on an upcoming book yet to be published”.
Publishers HarperCollins announced earlier this month they had acquired the rights for what was described as a prime ministerial memoir “like no other”.
Nadhim Zahawi has authorised HM Revenue and Customs to pass details of his tax affairs to the prime minister’s ethics adviser – who is investigating if he broke the rules for ministers – as Rishi Sunak continued to resist calls to sack him.
Pressure on the Tory party chair, who has admitted paying a penalty as part of an estimated £4.8m settlement with HMRC, intensified after the head of the organisation said such penalties were not issued for “innocent errors”, PA reported.
A source close to Zahawi said that he has now given HMRC permission to speak to Sir Laurie Magnus who is investigating whether his actions represented a breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct.
Earlier, giving evidence to MPs, the head of HMRC Jim Harra said that while he could not comment on individual cases there were “no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs”.
Updated
Boris Johnson could get more taxpayers’ money to cover extra legal support as the inquiry into his Partygate denials drags on, it has emerged.
The cost of helping the former prime minister defend himself over claims he misled parliament about law-breaking parties during Covid “could potentially exceed” the current £222,000 budget, a senior civil servant admitted.
Alex Chisholm, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, suggested that while he hoped the figure would be a “maximum”, the government could step in to foot another increase to the bill.
Slower than anticipated progress by the privileges committee means the contract with law firm Peters and Peters has already been extended once, until 28 February, with the £129,000 initially set aside rising to £222,000.
Chisholm said it was normal practice for the government to fund legal support for former ministers “after they have left office when the matters relate to their time and conduct as a minister”.
However Alex Thomas, the programme director at the Institute for Government, said that given the process looked “likely to run for many more months, this is an open-ended commitment by the government to defend the former prime minister’s personal conduct”.
He added it was “hard to justify the taxpayer funding Boris Johnson’s personal legal advice”.
The Conservative former health secretary Sajid Javid has spoken of his anger that Andrew Bridgen or any MP would “seek to connect” the UK’s Covid vaccine policy with the Holocaust.
Bridgen lost the Conservative whip earlier this month for tweeting an article questioning the safety of the vaccines and adding “this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”, PA reported.
Javid, who served as health secretary between June 2021 and July 2022, a crucial time for the vaccine rollout, hit out at Bridgen in the House of Commons during a debate to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
He told the Commons:
In this debate, we should all reflect on our roles as policymakers, because we know the sickening pattern of atrocities all too well.
We are right to reaffirm our commitment to ‘never again’, but we must also as parliamentarians do more to prepare the political foundations and the policy framework to prevent the next atrocity.
Our commitment to the truth must also be reinforced at home, including in how we counter misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Javid, who secured the debate, added:
Right now in the UK, we have seen a rise in anti-vaccine protesters carrying signs reading ‘vaccine holocaust’ and wearing the Star of David. I must say, it does anger me that any member of this House would seek to connect the Holocaust with UK public health policy.
MPs across the chamber could be heard to say “hear, hear” as Javid appeared to condemn Bridgen.
Bridgen caused widespread outrage when he retweeted an article questioning the safety of vaccines, with the MP adding: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”
Updated
Nadhim Zahawi gives HMRC approval to speak to tax investigation
Nadhim Zahawi has given HMRC approval to speak to the investigation into his tax affairs, a source close to the Tory chairman has told the Press Association.
More on this as it comes.
Updated
An independent MP who lost the Tory whip after appearing to compare Covid vaccines to the Holocaust is suing Matt Hancock for criticising his remarks.
Andrew Bridgen is suing the former health secretary for £100,000 over a tweet in which Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting “antisemitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories” over the vaccine.
Bridgen was widely condemned for making the comments, by MPs and campaigners from all parties.
The MP for North West Leicestershire threatened to take legal action against Hancock if he did not publicly apologise within three days. He said in a tweet posted on 13 January that Hancock had “still not removed his defamatory tweet falsely alleging that I am antisemitic. I will allow Matt three days to apologise publicly for calling me an antisemite and racist or he will be contacted by my legal team.”
He tweeted on Thursday:
I can confirm that Matt Hancock had a legal letter before action from Bad Law team on my behalf regarding defamation on Monday.
The legal action is being supported by the Reclaim party and the Bad Law Project.
The project, which is linked to the Reclaim party leader, Laurence Fox, claims to oppose “political ideology disguised as law”.
A spokesperson for Hancock said:
What Matt said was obviously not libellous and he stands by his comments.
Rather than wasting his time and money on an absurd libel case he will undoubtedly lose, let’s hope Bridgen does the right thing and apologises for the hurt he’s caused and keeps his offensive view to himself in future.
Speaking at Chequers where he has been holding a cabinet awayday, Rishi Sunak said he would await the result of the investigation into Dominic Raab following reports the bullying probe contains at least 24 complainants.
Downing Street confirmed in December that Raab was facing eight formal complaints over alleged bullying, six of them from his first stint at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), one from when he was foreign secretary and one from when he ran the Brexit department.
But the Guardian understands that all but two of the formal complaints involved multiple accusers, and that the total number of complainants is thought to be at least two dozen, and could be more than 30.
Sunak said:
I appointed an independent investigator to have a look at that matter, I’ll await for that independent investigator to complete that investigation and report back to me.
Updated
Sunak says ‘no issues were raised’ about Zahawi’s tax affairs before appointment
Rishi Sunak has said that no issues about Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs were raised with him when he appointed him as Conservative party chairman.
Sunak said:
Because new information came to light over the past week, that’s why I decided to ask the independent adviser to fully investigate this matter. When I appointed Nadhim Zahawi to his current job, no issues were raised with me about that appointment.
Sunak has sought to put down suggestions he was aware that Zahawi paid a penalty to HMRC prior to his appointment as the Conservative party’s chair on 25 October 2022.
The prime minister initially told the House of Commons last week that Zahawi had already addressed the matter “in full”. But after the Guardian revealed on Friday that a penalty had been paid, the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to confirm that Sunak had been told of this detail by Zahawi or officials.
Speaking to broadcasters at Chequers today, Sunak maintained he will wait for the results of the investigation into Zahawi despite the chief executive of HMRC Jim Harra saying there are “no penalties for innocent errors”. He said:
I’m not going to pre-judge the outcome of the investigation, it’s important that the independent adviser is able to do his work.
That’s what he’s currently doing, that’s what I’ve asked him to do and I’ll await the findings of that investigation.
Updated
The head of the UK’s intelligence, cyber and security agency GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, will step down at the end of his tenure later this year, it has been announced.
Fleming has been director of GCHQ since April 2017. He will continue to lead and oversee work at the agency until the summer, GCHQ said in a statement.
It added:
In line with normal practice, there will be an internal civil service competition to identify a successor.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said the government’s dropping of key reform commitments made in the wake of the Windrush debacle is “yet another betrayal of the Windrush generation”.
It comes after Suella Braverman confirmed she has dropped three key reform commitments made after a formal inquiry by Wendy Williams examined the scandal under which the Home Office erroneously classified legal residents, many of whom arrived from Caribbean countries as children in the 1950s and 1960s, as immigrants living in the UK illegally.
There were still “huge failures to pay compensation to those who were so badly wronged”, Cooper said in a statement.
She added:
Four years after Wendy Williams’ review, just eight of its recommendations have been fully implemented and now some have been dropped altogether, including important safeguards to strengthen the borders inspectorate.
The Home Office had an opportunity to put its apology to the Windrush victims into action, but it is tragic that the Home Secretary hasn’t learned the lessons of that appalling scandal.
A woman invited to parliament to attend the opening of an exhibition was asked to scratch off an old “stop Brexit” sticker from the top of her laptop before entering, the Guardian has been told.
Anna Betz, 66, a retired social worker, was told she had to remove the sticker in case she held the computer in the air to stage a protest.
Betz, who was eventually allowed on to the parliamentary estate after covering the sticker on her laptop with a piece of masking tape, said she was baffled by the security procedures.
Parliamentary authorities defended the protocols, saying “political or offensive slogan materials” were prohibited inside.
The incident happened on Monday evening at the main public entrance to parliament as Betz arrived for the opening of an exhibition about a research project on which she had worked connected to tackling memory loss, hosted by the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Daisy Cooper.
Lord Pickles, co-chair of the body overseeing a new £100m UK Holocaust memorial, said he is “desperate” to finally start building, given the dwindling number of survivors.
On Wednesday, the prime minister said he would legislate to work around a court ruling preventing the memorial and learning centre being erected on the Grade II listed Victoria Tower Gardens beside the Houses of Parliament. The scheme has been in development since 2014 but has been mired in controversy.
Pickles, who co-chairs the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation with former Labour education secretary Ed Balls, said the death of the Auschwitz survivor Zigi Shipper last week on his 93rd birthday, only increased the urgency to start work, nine years after the plan was first proposed by David Cameron.
“Given the numbers now dying I really am desperate to begin construction,” he said. More than 100 survivors have died in the past two years, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Rishi Sunak’s move should clear the way for planning consent to be granted by the planning minister, Lucy Frazer, but opponents of the location, including Westminster city council, appear ready to renew objections.
Updated
HMRC data shows the value of unpaid taxes rose by almost £5bn during Nadhim Zahawi’s brief stint as the chancellor.
In the three months between July and September 2022, the value of unpaid taxes owed grew to a whopping £47bn, an increase of £4.9bn on the previous quarter, according to the figures that were uncovered by the Liberal Democrats and published in the Mirror.
The Lib Dems accused the Conservatives of “allowing eye-watering amounts of taxes to go unpaid” whilst the “underfunded” NHS struggles to cope.
Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said:
Families around the country who work hard and play by the rules will be rightly furious to see billions of pounds in taxes being poured down the drain. It’s little wonder the Conservatives are failing to crack down on those failing to pay their fair share, when Nadhim Zahawi spent his time as chancellor negotiating his own settlement with HMRC.
Deputy prime minister and justice minister Dominic Raab’s plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a homegrown bill of rights have been dealt another blow with the publication of the European court of human rights annual report today.
Raab has expressed concern about the undue influence wielded by the court on UK domestic matters. However, today’s report shows that per capita, the ECHR dealt with fewer applications from the UK than anywhere else in Europe in 2022.
The court delivered 1,163 judgments in 2022, of which just four concerned the UK. Of the four, only two judgments found at least one violation of the human rights convention.
At the end of 2022, there were 74,647 applications pending before the ECHR; 99 of those – 0.12% – concerned the UK.
On Wednesday parliament’s joint committee on human rights urged the government to drop the bill of rights plans, warning that the introduction of this legislation could lead to more rather than fewer cases ending up in ECHR.
Updated
The Lib Dems have responded to the statement to MPs by the Cabinet Office’s permanent secretary Alex Chisholm that the government expects to pay up to £222,000 in legal fees to help Boris Johnson defend himself against claims he misled parliament over Partygate.
The Lib Dem chief whip, Wendy Chamberlain, described the news as a “sleazy new low” for the government and called for taxpayer support for Johnson’s legal fees to end.
She said:
While the British people battle with a cost-of-living crisis, this Conservative Government seems more interested in helping Boris Johnson with his cost-of-lying crisis. This is a sleazy new low for this government, dragging politics into the gutter.
People will be outraged that hundreds of thousands of pounds of their money will be used to defend a lying lawbreaker who disgraced the office of prime minister.
Updated
The organiser of the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Windrush generation’s arrival in Britain has also condemned Braverman’s announcement.
Patrick Vernon, convenor of the Windrush 75 network, told PA Media it was a “slap in the face”. He added: “This June marks 75 years of the contribution made to Britain by the Windrush generation and their descendants.
“For the home secretary to be backsliding on government commitments to set right the injustices of the Windrush scandal – particularly in this anniversary year – is a slap in the face for those communities.
“Suella Braverman should make a clear commitment to right the wrongs of the Windrush scandal.”
Suella Braverman’s decision to row back on key commitments made in the wake of the Windrush scandal has triggered more criticism.
PA have a statement from the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI), who said it was a “missed opportunity” not to increase the powers of the post.
Braverman announced on Thursday that a recommendation, made following an inquiry into the Windrush scandal, that the ICIBI should have their powers bolstered would not be acted on by the Home Office.
David Neal, the current chief inspector, said in a statement: “I am disappointed the home secretary has decided not to progress recommendation 10, since this presented an ideal opportunity to take stock and examine a number of issues relating to the independence and effectiveness of the ICIBI.”
He added: “This is a missed opportunity to look at increasing powers regarding the publishing of reports as explicitly recommended by Wendy Williams.
“It is disappointing as well that no role and remit review will examine Wendy Williams’ recommendation that a duty be placed on ministers to justify the non-acceptance of ICIBI recommendations and that the chief inspector will not be able to work closely with a migrants’ commissioner when formulating his inspection programme, as the home secretary has also decided not to proceed with recommendation 9.”
Robert Palmer, executive director of Tax Justice UK, has written an opinion piece for the Guardian arguing the British tax system is stacked in favour of the wealthy.
Here’s a taste of the piece:
Last week the Guardian reported that a senior minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has paid a penalty of around £1m to HMRC for being “careless” with his taxes. This might seem galling to those who are spending this month carefully filling out their tax returns, or those who automatically pay their taxes through PAYE.
According to HMRC figures, £6.1bn a year is lost to people “failing to take reasonable care” with their tax returns. Some of this will be caught by the tax authorities, but much of it will go unnoticed.
Then there is a range of ways in which individuals and companies purposefully slash their tax bills. Some of these methods are illegal – deemed to be tax evasion – and can result in criminal prosecution and even jail. Somewhere in the middle there are ways in which people can use laws in unintended ways to pay less tax – known as tax avoidance. At the other end of the spectrum are deliberate gaps in tax rules that allow some people to pay much lower rates of tax than others.
Tax evasion might mean taking cash in hand for work, not reporting business income or hiding the proceeds of crime. HMRC estimates that the government loses £8bn a year from tax evasion and the hidden economy.
Another way of earning money from work without paying tax on it is to receive a loan instead of a salary, with the understanding that the loan is never repaid. These “disguised remuneration” schemes are usually pushed by unscrupulous professionals who are often based offshore. They rarely work and it’s usually the worker, not the professional, who is punished.
Asked about Harra’s comment on “innocent errors”, Rishi Sunak’s deputy spokesperson said: “I’ll point you to the words of Jim Harra himself. I think he was speaking more generally about tax policy. But it’s now a matter for the independent adviser.”
Questioned about whether Zahawi would be expected to hand over details of his tax affairs, the spokesperson added: “Again, it’s an independent investigation, so I can’t comment on the process. More broadly, the prime minister expects participation with it.”
He declined to comment on reports that Sunak’s ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, could complete the report within 10 days, saying only that No 10 had asked for the process to be completed “as quickly as possible”.
Updated
Cabinet heads to Chequers to plot Sunak survival course
When politicians last gathered en masse at the grace-and-favour retreat Chequers, they were farewell parties for prime ministers whose time in office was cut shorter than they expected.
On Thursday, Rishi Sunak will gather his cabinet there for an all-day summit to plot the strategy to ensure his time is not similarly curtailed – by his own MPs or, more likely, by the electorate.
The cabinet will meet at the Buckinghamshire country house, where Sunak has been spending most of his weekends as prime minister, to begin thrashing through the strategy for the general election most now expect to be held in autumn 2024.
The prime minister fired the starting gun in early January, with a speech setting out his five key tests for the next two years – three on the economy, the others on NHS backlogs and small boat crossings in the Channel.
Ministers will be joined by senior staff from No 10, including the new director of communications, Amber de Botton, and her deputy, Nerissa Chesterfield, as well as the Tory elections strategist Isaac Levido, newly back to the fold after having been ousted by Liz Truss during her short premiership.
At the summit, ministers will look in detail at a presentation of battleground seats and voters’ priorities – a grim electoral picture. Labour have a 22-point lead in the most recent polling, suggesting the majority of the electorate now believe Keir Starmer will be the next prime minister – and even most 2019 Tory voters say they are relaxed about that happening.
Updated
The former Cabinet minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, is joining GB News to host his own show.
The Tory MP for North East Somerset will “debate the hot topics of the day” and interview guests from “across the political spectrum”, according to the broadcaster.
He will also take his show on tour, broadcasting in front of live audiences in towns and cities across the country.
Rees-Mogg described the network as “a bastion of free speech” and said he had been “impressed” by its “independent-mindedness”.
He said:
GB News is a bastion of free speech which clearly has its finger uniquely on the pulse of public opinion and does not talk down to its viewers and listeners.
The former Brexit opportunities minister and business secretary resigned from the Cabinet in October when Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street.
Editorial director of GB News, Mick Booker, described Rees-Mogg as an “authentic and authoritative voice of the Tory backbenches” with “an impish sense of fun”, and said he was a “terrific addition” to the network.
MPs have been told that the government expects to pay up to £222,000 in legal fees to help Boris Johnson defend himself against claims he misled parliament over Partygate.
The law firm Peters and Peters was awarded a four-month contract worth £129,700 in August 2021 to provide Johnson with advice during the investigation into his conduct by the House of Commons Privileges Committee.
That amount has since been increased to £222,000, the Cabinet Office’s permanent secretary Alex Chisholm said at a meeting of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
He said the increase was due to the length of the Privileges Committee inquiry, and could rise again depending on how long the inquiry takes. He said:
At the moment we have estimated that it would be up to a figure of £200,000, which has been published, £222,000 to be precise. We hope and expect that will be a maximum figure but obviously we don’t want to anticipate and certainly could not regulate the conduct of the committee, which is entirely up to them.
The head of the inquiry into the Windrush debacle has issued a rare statement expressing disappointment after Suella Braverman confirmed she has dropped three key reform commitments made in the wake of the Home Office scandal.
Wendy Williams said she was concerned that the government had dropped the pledge to create the post of a migrants’ commissioner, who would have been responsible for speaking up for migrants and identifying systemic problems within the UK immigration system.
Another promise, to increase the powers of the ICIBI so that they would be able to launch and release their own inquiries has also been abandoned, as work on the post-Windrush reform programme is downgraded.
Williams said:
I am disappointed that the department has decided not to implement what I see as the crucial external scrutiny measures, namely my recommendations related to the migrants’ commissioner (rec 9) and the ICIBI (rec 10), as I believe they will raise the confidence of the Windrush community, but also help the department succeed as it works to protect the wider public, of whom the Windrush generation is such an important part.
Downing Street has declined to comment on HMRC chief executive Jim Harra’s remarks that there are “no penalties for innocent errors” in an individual’s tax affairs.
A No 10 spokesperson instead referred reporters to Rishi Sunak’s remarks in the Commons yesterday. They said:
The independent adviser will establish the facts and provide advice to the PM and then he will obviously consider next steps. I obviously can’t pre-empt that. It is right that the independent adviser is allowed to continue with that work.
Asked if the ethics probe into Nadhim Zahawi could be completed in as little as 10 days, they said:
We have said that we would like to see the work completed as quickly as possible. That remains the case but ultimately the timeline is a matter for the independent adviser. We wouldn’t put a time constraint on him.
Braverman confirms government ditching key Windrush pledges
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has confirmed the government is dropping several of the key commitments made in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
In a written statement in the House of Commons, Braverman said she would not be creating the post of migrants’ commissioner, who was due to be responsible for speaking up for migrants and for identifying systemic problems within the UK immigration system.
Other promises, including increasing the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI) and holding reconciliation events with the Windrush community, have also been abandoned.
Braverman said in her statement:
The Home Office regularly reviews the best way to deliver against the intent of Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned review. As such, after considering officials’ advice, I have decided not to proceed with recommendations 3 (run reconciliation events), 9 (introduce migrants’ commissioner) and 10 (review the remit and role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration) in their original format.
The recommendations were accepted three years ago by the government after a formal inquiry by Wendy Williams examined the scandal under which the Home Office erroneously classified legal residents, many of whom arrived from Caribbean countries as children in the 1950s and 60s, as immigrants living in the UK illegally.
Updated
The former chief economist of the Bank of England has warned there is “more pain to come” for households and the wider economy as mortgage rate increases hit people’s bank accounts and weigh on spending.
Andy Haldane, who is now chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, said it was painful to see the effects of rising interest rates since he left the Bank of England and its rate-setting monetary policy committee in June 2021.
The Bank of England has raised its key interest rate sharply since late 2021, from a historic low of 0.1% in November 2021 to 3.5% in December 2022. British households have been hit at the same time by big energy price increases and inflation in a broader collection of goods and services.
Haldane told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It is painful and I fear there is more pain to come as those mortgage rate rises from last year begin to hit people’s bank accounts over the course of this year.
I would have preferred the Bank and other central banks to have started their rate rises a bit sooner. That would have helped a bit in nipping inflation in the bud and would have meant that we wouldn’t have had those rapid rate rises at the same time as the economy was hitting the buffers. But overall this global shock was always going to bring a significant degree of pain, including through higher rates.
Here’s more from Jim Harra, the chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs, who suggested he could offer a more public comment on a minister’s tax affairs if he was given permission.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, he said:
Taxpayers can consent for HMRC to share details of their tax affairs with other people and that’s normal, for example, when they have an agent. However, it would still not be normal for HMRC to publicly comment on someone’s tax affairs even if they had said that it was OK for us to do so. Our requirement not to disclose information publicly sits whether a taxpayer is relaxed about it or not relaxed about it.
Asked if a minister, or Nadhim Zahawi, granted permission to HMRC to discuss their tax affairs with the committee, Harra said:
It would not be normal for me to account to this committee for a person’s tax affairs, but if there are general issues about how we manage tax and I’ve got the ability to be disclosive that’s obviously something I would take advantage of.
Important statement by HMRC chief executive Jim Harra to PAC on Zahawi. He says he will release details of Zahawi’s £5m tax settlement to Sunak’s ethics adviser Magnus if Zahawi gives permission. But Zahawi has to authorise the release of this private tax…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 26, 2023
information to the inquiry into his conduct. Presumably he will ask HMRC to hand over the information, because if he did not he would put the Prime Minister in an impossible situation.
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 26, 2023
The former chancellor Philip Hammond has said he would not have accepted the job if he had been involved in an HMRC investigation.
Asked by Sky News if it was “acceptable” that Nadhim Zahawi paid an HMRC penalty to settle a tax dispute while in charge of the Treasury, Hammond said:
My own personal view is that I would not want to accept the office of chancellor if I was at that time involved in a live negotiation of an outstanding tax case with HMRC.
He added that “ultimately this is a question for” Boris Johnson, who appointed Zahawi as chancellor. He said:
If he was aware of these issues, then I think the question falls at his door. Why did he appoint somebody to this role who clearly was not in a position to carry out that function?”
Updated
HMRC chief executive says 'no penalties for innocent errors' in people's tax affairs
Jim Harra, the chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs, has said there are “no penalties for innocent errors” in an individual’s tax affairs.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, Harra was careful to point out that he was not discussing any particular individual. He said:
Carelessness is a concept in tax law. It can be relevant to how many back years that we can assess, can be relevant to whether someone is liable to a penalty and if so, what penalty they will be liable to for an error in their tax affairs. There are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs. So if you take reasonable care, but nevertheless make a mistake, whilst you will be liable for the tax and for interest if it’s paid late, you would not be liable for a penalty. But if your error was as a result of carelessness, then legislation says that a penalty could apply in those circumstances.
It’s worth pointing out that Nadhim Zahawi did pay a penalty imposed by HMRC as part of an estimated £5m tax bill.
Harra told MPs that officials would help “in any way we possibly can” with the ethics inquiry into Zahawi’s tax affairs.
Updated
UK climate minister received donations from fuel and aviation companies
The UK climate minister – who recently stated not all fossil fuels were the “spawn of the devil” – received campaign donations from one of the largest fuel distributors in the UK as well as an aviation consultant and recruiter, it has emerged.
Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, was appointed climate minister by Rishi Sunak in September. He has responsibility for net zero strategy and low carbon generation, and is the Commons lead for clean heat.
Stuart has confounded some during his short tenure as climate minister with claims that a fresh round of oil and gas licensing are “good for the environment” and more recently stating not all fossil fuels should be “viewed as the spawn of the devil”.
Now it has emerged that, in 2019, Stuart received a £10,000 donation towards his re-election campaign from JR Rix & Sons, a Hull-based business primarily involved in the distribution and sale of fuel, including heating oil, diesel and petrol.
Among JR Rix & Sons’ group of companies is Rix Petroleum, as well as Rix Heating, which specialises in the supply and maintenance of oil tanks and boilers, Rix Shipping, which operates a fleet of oil tankers, and Maritime Bunkering, one of the largest suppliers of marine fuels on the Humber estuary.
The number of ambulance patients waiting a half an hour or more to be handed over to A&E staff has fallen to one-in-five patients, the lowest proportion this winter.
One-in-fifteen (6.6%) of patients waited more than an hour in the back of an ambulance or on a hospital corridor to be handed over to A&E staff in the week to 22 January compared to one-in-four in the last week of December.
Ambulance crews – who, along with nurses, will take part in a coordinated strike with nurses on 6 February – have expressed frustration at long handover delays.
Pressures have eased across the NHS towards the end of January with a fall in the number of beds required for flu patients and people.
There was also an easing in the number of beds needed for those who, although medically fit for discharge, cannot leave hospital due to a lack of social care places. More than 14,000 beds were required for these “delayed discharges” in recent weeks but fell back to 13,566 in the week ending 22 January.
The Home Office is preparing to introduce a long-expected ban on the sale or possession of nitrous oxide, one of the most popular recreational drugs among young people, as part of a wider crackdown on antisocial behaviour.
The plan is being pushed by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, according to officials, and would lead to people found with laughing gas, which is usually inhaled from balloons filled through small metal cylinders, facing prosecution.
Discarded nitrous oxide cylinders are a ubiquitous sight on high streets and at festivals, with almost one in 10 16- to 24-year-olds reporting having taking the drug in 2019-20.
While supplying nitrous oxide for its psychoactive effects is already illegal under 2016 legislation, the gas has legitimate uses, primarily for the production of whipped cream or for freezing food, and it is widely available online.
The planned change to the law, first reported by the Times, would permit the gas to be possessed for legitimate reasons – it is also used as pain relief, for example in childbirth – but would ban recreational use and supply, most likely bracketing it under the same classification as cannabis.
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At least 24 civil servants involved in complaints against Dominic Raab, say sources
Dominic Raab is facing a much broader bullying investigation than originally anticipated with at least 24 civil servants involved in formal complaints against him, the Guardian understands.
Government insiders believe the depth of the inquiry and severity of some of the claims means the deputy prime minister will struggle to survive in post, and it throws further doubt on Rishi Sunak’s judgment for having him in such a senior position.
The prime minister is already under siege on a separate front over the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair, with growing pressure on him from senior Tories and the opposition to take decisive action irrespective of an ongoing inquiry.
Downing Street confirmed in December that the Raab was facing eight formal complaints over alleged bullying, six of them from his first stint at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), one from when he was foreign secretary and one from when he ran the Brexit department.
However, sources said that all but two of the formal complaints involved multiple accusers. A number of his private office staff from his first stretch at the MoJ are among those believed to have made submissions. The total number of complainants is thought to be at least two dozen, and could be more than 30, sources claim.
The Guardian understands that Sunak personally read excerpts from a number of the written statements submitted as part of the initial tranche of complaints before ordering the investigation by Adam Tolley KC into potential breaches of the ministerial code.
Raab, who has stayed in post while the inquiry is ongoing, has vowed to “thoroughly rebut and refute” the formal complaints. He has said he is confident he “acted professionally” throughout his time in three different cabinet posts.
However, the latest claims will come as another blow as he attempts to move on from the scandal. Raab faces potentially damaging allegations over bullying behaviour when dealing with civil servants, including some in senior roles, including that he “belittled and demeaned” them and was “very rude and aggressive” on multiple occasions each day.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he has a “special bond” with Boris Johnson in an interview where he branded Vladimir Putin a “nobody” and suggested it was too late for face-to-face talks with the Russian leader.
Speaking to Sky News, Zelenskiy declined to say whether Johnson, who he described as “a good guy”, should get an official role representing the UK on Ukraine. Laughing, he said:
Who knows? With pleasure, with pleasure, really.
His comments came after Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine on the weekend, which he said was at the invitation of President Zelenskiy. Johnson was pictured in the town of Borodianka in the Kyiv region, and said it was a “privilege” to be there to show solidarity with the war-torn nation.
Asked if he would support another bid by Johnson to become prime minister, Zelenskiy replied:
I think that is not correct for me to support Johnson to be prime minister. We have good relations with Sunak. I think we had more long relations with Johnson, because it was more long-time. I saw Johnson in different situations, I saw him not in war and then in full-scale war, that’s why we have special relations.
My colleague Martin Belam is covering all the latest news from the Russia-Ukraine war on our blog.
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Zahawi inquiry could conclude within 10 days, says senior minister
The work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, has suggested the ethics probe into Nadhim Zahawi could conclude in as little as 10 days.
Asked on ITV’s Peston programme last night about rumours that the probe could be done within 10 days, Stride said it “wouldn’t be untypical” for Sir Laurie Magnus to operate in that timeframe.
He added:
I can’t be drawn on an arrangement of which I don’t know all the details. But the good news is that we will - in around, it sounds like, 10 days’ time or thereabouts - hear from the ethics adviser, who will report to the prime minister, the prime minister will then have the facts and be able to make exactly those judgments.
“The Prime Minister will then have the facts and be able to make those judgements"@MelJStride promises a swift review of Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs, amid reports a ruling could be issued within ten days
— Peston (@itvpeston) January 25, 2023
Watch the full interview:
💻LIVE 9PM @itvpeston
📺1045PM @ITV#Peston pic.twitter.com/kN9FHJIakx
Downing Street has not set a timeline or indicated the pace of the inquiry, only saying it hoped Sir Laurie could report back “swiftly”.
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The matter of who knew what about Nadhim Zahawi’s dealings with the taxman and when in Whitehall and No 10 is the subject of intense scrutiny and could yet define Rishi Sunak’s premiership.
Sunak has sought to put down suggestions he was aware that Zahawi paid a penalty to HMRC prior to his appointment as the Conservative party’s chair on 25 October 2022.
The prime minister initially told the House of Commons last week that Zahawi had already addressed the matter “in full”. But after the Guardian revealed on Friday that a penalty had been paid, the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to confirm that Sunak had been told of this detail by Zahawi or officials.
Zahawi paid an estimated total of £5m, including interest, about £3.7m in tax owed and penalty of 30%, a source told the Guardian. Sunak told MPs on Wednesday: “The issues in question occurred before I was prime minister.”
He added:
The usual appointments process was followed, no issues were raised with me when he was appointed to his current role and, since I commented on this matter last week, more information has come forward. That is why I have asked the independent adviser to look into the matter.
Sunak’s version of events is set against more than two years of discussions of Zahawi’s financial dealings at the highest levels in Whitehall, among Sunak’s own former department, the Treasury, and his former and current cabinet colleagues.
The former prime minister, Boris Johnson, and home secretary, Priti Patel, were notified of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into Zahawi as early as 2020, the Guardian understands.
Rishi Sunak's cabinet heads to Chequers as PM under siege to sack Nadhim Zahawi
Good morning. Rishi Sunak us hosting a cabinet away day at his country house, Chequers, where the embattled Nadhim Zahawi is expected to attend, in an outing that has been dubbed a “hideaway day” by opposition parties.
The Cabinet’s away day comes after days of damaging headlines about Zahawi’s tax affairs, with the Conservative party chairman subject to an ethics probe. Sunak ordered an investigation by Sir Laurie Magnus, his independent adviser on ministers’ interests, into whether Zahawi broke ministerial rules over the estimated £4.8m bill he settled with HMRC while he was chancellor.
The result of that investigation could take just 10 days, according to work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride. Speaking on ITV’s Peston programme on Wednesday, he said:
I can’t be drawn on an arrangement of which I don’t know all the details. But the good news is that we will, in around it sounds like ten days’ time or thereabouts, hear from the ethics adviser, who will report to the prime minister, the prime minister will then have the facts and be able to make exactly those judgments.
There is growing pressure on Sunak from senior Tories and the opposition to take decisive action against Zahawi irrespective of an ongoing inquiry.
Sunak will sack Zahawi if he is judged to have “fallen foul” of the ministerial code, trade minister Andrew Bowie told the BBC last night. Lord Barwell, a former Downing Street chief of staff to Theresa May, said the lack of public defence being offered for Zahawi suggested his role could be in jeopardy.
The meeting also comes after my colleague Pippa Crerar’s report that Dominic Raab is facing a much broader bullying investigation than originally anticipated with at least 24 civil servants involved in formal complaints against him.
Downing Street offered few details about what today’s Chequers away day would entail, but said Cabinet ministers would be “focused on the five priority areas” that Sunak spoke about in his new year’s speech.
The Lib Dems accused the PM and his cabinet of effectively dodging scrutiny as the country grapples with a range of crises. Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said:
While Rishi Sunak and his scandal-hit ministers hold a ‘hideaway’ day at Chequers, the rest of the country is suffering from this endless Conservative chaos. The NHS is in crisis and people are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, but Conservative ministers are too busy fighting to save their own careers. Sunak’s promise to govern with integrity now lies in tatters. He can’t even tackle the multiple crises facing his Cabinet, let alone the huge challenges facing the country.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am. NHS England will publish its weekly situation report for hospitals, plus figures for GP appointments and GP/NHS workforce.
9.30am. Office for National Statistics to publish its figures on economic activity and social change in the UK.
9.30am. In the Commons: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport questions; Questions to the Church Commissioners, House of Commons Commission, Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body, Public Accounts Commission and Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission; Business Statement and questions to the Leader of the House; General debate on Holocaust Memorial Day; Adjournment debate on the Midland Metro extension.
11am. In the Lords: Introduction of Lord Sewell of Sanderstead; Oral questions on supporting UK manufacturing after Brexit, proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act, and meeting the needs of autistic pupils in mainstream secondary schools; Debate on the level of resilience of the armed forces; Short debate on the Skidmore net zero review; Debate on the life chances and educational prospects of vulnerable teenagers.
12pm. Rishi Sunak’s cabinet meets for an away day at the prime minister’s country house, Chequers.
12pm. First Minister’s Questions will take place at Holyrood.
2pm. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will publish its weekly Covid-19 and flu surveillance report.
3.30pm. Read-out of the cabinet meeting.
Hello everyone. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be covering Andrew Sparrow on the blog today and tomorrow. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
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