Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has claimed he can't answer questions on Nadhim Zahawi's tax affairs as he was in the US for work and then "doing some shopping".
The top Tory made the bizarre claim as he was pressed in TV interviews to address reports that Mr Zahawi paid HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) a seven-figure sum to end a dispute over his tax bill.
Under-fire Mr Zahawi broke his silence yesterday to "address some of the confusion about my finances", admitting a "careless but not deliberate error" related to shares in YouGov, the polling firm he co-founded.