> Nadhim Zahawi, chair of the UK Conservative party, is due to publish his memoirs later this year. The title, A Boy from Baghdad: My Journey from Waziriyah to Westminster, reflects a career that has taken him from the dusty oilfields of Iraqi Kurdistan to the upper echelons of British politics.
> The final chapter, however, will need a major rewrite.
> Zahawi is the focus of the first big scandal to engulf the young premiership of Rishi Sunak after revelations about a clash with the taxman that have left him struggling to hold on to his job.
> At the weekend, a Zahawi ally admitted that he had paid a penalty to HM Revenue & Customs, as part of a total settlement of £5mn for unpaid taxes. Sunak, who enlisted Zahawi to prepare the Conservatives for an election next year, has instead ordered an ethics inquiry into his tax affairs and faces huge pressure to sack his party chief.
> It is the latest chapter in a life story in which Zahawi has successfully straddled the worlds of business and politics, becoming hugely wealthy and occupying several senior positions in government. In the dying days of Boris Johnson’s government, he even held one of the great offices of state, serving as chancellor of the exchequer for two months.
> Born in Baghdad, he has gone from working for disgraced peer Jeffrey Archer to acting as a fixer for oil companies in the notoriously murky world of post-Saddam Iraq. In 2000, he co-founded YouGov, the polling group, which would earn his family millions.
> Many colleagues admire him for his pluck and backslapping bonhomie, for his competent handling, as vaccines minister, of Britain’s fight against Covid-19, and for undoubted prowess as a self-made businessman.
> But throughout his career, he has faced criticism for blurring the lines between business and politics, between the public and the personal. Those criticisms have come to a head in the latest scandal. When Zahawi agreed a settlement over profits from his family’s YouGov stake, he was at the time chancellor, leading the department that oversees HMRC.
> One former Tory minister described Zahawi as a popular MP and successful risk-taking entrepreneur. But now, he said, Zahawi may have finally “flown a little too close to the sun”.
The thief of Baghdad.
>In 2013, Zahawi was criticised by his political foes when it emerged that he had claimed £5,822 in expenses for heating the stables with taxpayer money. This was an innocent error, he said at the time: “I am mortified by this mistake.”
Ah yeah, we’ve all left the heating on from time to time
Appreciate the thread, a very detailed and interesting piece.
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> Nadhim Zahawi, chair of the UK Conservative party, is due to publish his memoirs later this year. The title, A Boy from Baghdad: My Journey from Waziriyah to Westminster, reflects a career that has taken him from the dusty oilfields of Iraqi Kurdistan to the upper echelons of British politics.
> The final chapter, however, will need a major rewrite.
> Zahawi is the focus of the first big scandal to engulf the young premiership of Rishi Sunak after revelations about a clash with the taxman that have left him struggling to hold on to his job.
> At the weekend, a Zahawi ally admitted that he had paid a penalty to HM Revenue & Customs, as part of a total settlement of £5mn for unpaid taxes. Sunak, who enlisted Zahawi to prepare the Conservatives for an election next year, has instead ordered an ethics inquiry into his tax affairs and faces huge pressure to sack his party chief.
> It is the latest chapter in a life story in which Zahawi has successfully straddled the worlds of business and politics, becoming hugely wealthy and occupying several senior positions in government. In the dying days of Boris Johnson’s government, he even held one of the great offices of state, serving as chancellor of the exchequer for two months.
> Born in Baghdad, he has gone from working for disgraced peer Jeffrey Archer to acting as a fixer for oil companies in the notoriously murky world of post-Saddam Iraq. In 2000, he co-founded YouGov, the polling group, which would earn his family millions.
> Many colleagues admire him for his pluck and backslapping bonhomie, for his competent handling, as vaccines minister, of Britain’s fight against Covid-19, and for undoubted prowess as a self-made businessman.
> But throughout his career, he has faced criticism for blurring the lines between business and politics, between the public and the personal. Those criticisms have come to a head in the latest scandal. When Zahawi agreed a settlement over profits from his family’s YouGov stake, he was at the time chancellor, leading the department that oversees HMRC.
> One former Tory minister described Zahawi as a popular MP and successful risk-taking entrepreneur. But now, he said, Zahawi may have finally “flown a little too close to the sun”.
The thief of Baghdad.
>In 2013, Zahawi was criticised by his political foes when it emerged that he had claimed £5,822 in expenses for heating the stables with taxpayer money. This was an innocent error, he said at the time: “I am mortified by this mistake.”
Ah yeah, we’ve all left the heating on from time to time
Appreciate the thread, a very detailed and interesting piece.