Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi is fighting for survival after an explosive row over his tax affairs.
The multimillionaire former businessman admitted to a "careless and not deliberate error" related to shares in YouGov, the polling firm that he co-founded.
Mr Zahawi reportedly paid a multi-million pound penalty to resolve the dispute with HMRC last summer, when he was Chancellor, meaning he was in charge of the UK's tax policy.
Rishi Sunak has defied calls to sack the minister, who he appointed to serve in his Cabinet only three months ago.
Instead he tasked his anti-sleaze adviser to launch an investigation - potentially kicking the issue into the long grass for months.
The row threatens to derail the career of the top Tory, who arrived in the UK from Iraq as a 11-year-old and has since held some of the top jobs in Government.
But with high office came a string of scandals, from attending the controversial President's Club dinner to claiming expenses to for his stables.
So who is Nadhim Zahawi?
Born in Iraq to Kurdish parents, his family fled Saddam Hussein in the 1970s and arrived in the UK when Mr Zahawi was only 11-years-old.
He was educated at a West London comprehensive, where he described being bullied and racially abused by his classmates, then privately.
He studied chemical engineering at UCL and went on to build a lucrative business career. The Tory co-founded pollster YouGov before being elected to Parliament in 2010.
Mr Zahawi was elected a Tory MP in 2010 for safe seat Stratford - but spent nearly eight years on the back benches, where he raked in the cash in the oil industry.
He was paid £350,000 a year by Gulf Keystone Petroleum between 2015 and 2017, where he served as the firm’s Chief Strategy Officer alongside his first job as an MP.
But he was forced to leave this well-paying work behind when he became an Education Minister in 2018. But he certainly wasn’t out of pocket.
His payoffs leaving Gulfstone included a £285,000 “settlement payment” in 2018 and and £105,000 he received in lieu of notice.
Although he stood down from his family business Zahawi and Zahawi Ltd when he became a minister, his wife and two sons are all directors.
The firm has a property empire in Surrey, London, East Sussex and Buckinghamshire, plus 31 acres of land and a stables in Warwickshire.
In 2013 the Sunday Mirror revealed the millionaire claimed for electricity at the stables, as part of a wider bill, other parts of which were allowed under the rules.
Mr Zahawi at first defended his claims but now admits he made a “mistake”. He told us: “On investigation I have made a mistake with the electricity.
“I will be paying back any money wrongly claimed immediately and I apologise unreservedly.”
Mr Zahawi was loyal to Boris Johnson who made him a Business Minister before putting him in charge of the vaccine rollout during the pandemic.
He was promoted to become Education Secretary in 2021 when Gavin Williamson was sacked and went on to become Chancellor in July last year after Rishi Sunak quit Boris Johnson's collapsing Government.
Mr Zahawi was among the MPs to tell Mr Johnson to go - only two days after he'd been promoted to the second highest post in Government.
He ran to be Tory leader but was eliminated after not getting enough MP backers. He later endorsed Liz Truss for the top job - but she sacked him as Chancellor in favour of Kwasi Kwarteng.
After Liz Truss quit, he was forced into an embarrassing U-turn after he endorsed Boris Johnson to be PM shortly before he pulled out of the race.
An opinion piece in the Telegraph singing Mr Johnson's praises was then swiftly removed.
Regardless, Rishi Sunak brought him back into the Cabinet as Tory chairman and Minister without Portfolio when he became PM.
The row over his tax affairs is not the first time he's found himself caught in a scandal.
He faced questions weeks after becoming a minister - after he attended a men-only charity gala at which female hostesses were allegedly groped.
He was at the Presidents Club gala dinner, where the Financial Times revealed 130 “tall, thin and pretty” women served 300 men at “the most un-PC event of the year”.
The PM faced calls to axe the then-Children’s Minister, who went to the “sleazy” charity event twice.
A No10 source said he would be “disciplined” and asked “to explain himself”.
The minister tweeted about the event: “I condemn this behaviour. I will never attend a men-only function ever”.
Sources said he “felt uncomfortable” and left when the hostesses were introduced.
Despite all this, Mr Zahawi has rocketed up the rankings under Boris Johnson, serving as Vaccines Minister during Covid then Education Secretary.
He also made controversial remarks in 2020 that some parents “prefer” having to pay for school meals - despite Covid economic woes at the time.
Footballer Marcus Rashford was ramping up pressure at the time on ministers to feed hungry kids in the holidays.
But former oil executive Mr Zahawi said he had worked on holiday club pilots for free meals with former MP Frank Field.
"The research when we did the pilot demonstrates that families didn't just want the meals," he said.
"Although they valued the meals, they didn't like the labelling of them being free. They actually prefer to pay a modest amount, £1 or £2.”
