Religion

No 10 declines to say Sunak confident Zahawi has always told him truth about his tax affairs – as it happened


No 10 declines to say Sunak confident Zahawi has always told him truth about his tax affairs

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak expects the inquiry into Nadhim Zahawi’s tax arrangements being carried out by the PM’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to be carried out “swiftly”.

But the spokesperson said there was no deadline for its conclusion. He explained:

We haven’t set a timeline for it because whilst we want this to be conducted swiftly, it’s important equally that it is thorough, hence why we’re not restricting to a particular date.

Asked if the PM was confident that Zahawi always told him the truth about his tax affairs, the spokesperson said:

The investigation looks at any potential breaches of the ministerial code. As you’ll know, I won’t get into being prescriptive about how the advice goes about ascertaining that.

Key events

Afternoon summary

  • Downing Street has said that it wants the inquiry by its ethics adviser into Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair, to conclude “swiftly”. Last night Caroline Nokes, a Tory former minister, said Zahawi should stand aside while the inquiry takes place. Zahawi has not taken her advice, he remains in office, and there have been no futher high-profile calls for his resignation from Conservatives. But government MPs have not been giving him their full support either and, in a sign that No 10 may be happy to see him go, the PM’s spokesperson declined to say that Rishi Sunak was confident Zahawi had always told him the truth about his tax affairs. (See 12.32pm.)

Nadhim Zahawi leaving Conservative party HQ earlier today.
Nadhim Zahawi leaving Conservative party HQ earlier today. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

From Sandra Glab from Times Radio

💥NEW: Lord Evans, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life tells @JPonpolitics Cabinet Secretary Simon Case should have made sure it’s known Richard Sharp had a role in a private loan to the PM who gave him the job. @TimesRadio

— Sandra Glab (@glabsandra) January 24, 2023

Royal Mail boss told to return to Commons committee to answer claims his earlier evidence was inaccurate

The boss of Royal Mail will be brought back in front of MPs after they accused him of providing information that “may not have been wholly correct”, PA Media reports.

PA says:

The chief executive, Simon Thompson, has been asked to clarify his statements to the Commons business committee “at the earliest opportunity”, the chair, Darren Jones, said today.

After Thompson spoke last week amid a dispute with the company’s union, MPs said they were sent hundreds of complaints questioning his claims.

In a letter to Thompson and his chair, Jones said the letters had raised concerns over several of the statements.

MPs had asked why Royal Mail was tracking how fast employees were making deliveries using their handheld computers and whether they were disciplined based on that data.

Thompson said: “No. I am not aware of technology we have in place that tells people to work more quickly. I am not aware of that at all.”

But Jones said that his group has “received evidence that suggests this is not correct”.

University staff to strike for 18 days over February and March

Richard Adams

Richard Adams

The University and College Union has announced the dates for what it says will be “the biggest series of strikes ever to hit UK university campuses”, involving as many as 70,000 of its active members in higher education. The dates include 11 days in February, and 18 days in total.

Tomorrow the union is meeting with employer representatives, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, to discuss pay and working conditions.

Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, said:

The university sector in the UK has over £40bn sitting in reserves but instead of using that vast wealth to deliver a cost-of-living pay rise and reverse devastating pension cuts, university vice-chancellors would rather force staff to take strike action and see campuses shut down.

The union had already announced a strike day on 1 February, coinciding with industrial action by a number of other unions.

The full series of dates are:

Wednesday 1 February
Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February
Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 February
Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February
Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 March
Thursday 16 and Friday 17 March
Monday 20, Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 March

UCU said it will also be re-balloting members at the 150 universities in dispute to extend the union’s mandate and allow staff to take further action through the remainder of the academic year.

Yesterday Boris Johnson gave a peculiar quote about the BBC “disappearing up its own fundament” when doorstepped by reporters about the Richard Sharp story. Today he was even less keen to engage with questions about the affair, ITV reveals, just brushing off questions with a series of “G’days” in a cod Australian accent.

Sadiq Khan and Steve Barclay clash over mayor’s plan to extend Ulez across London

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has hit back at Steve Barclay after the health secretary criticised his plan to extend the ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) across the whole of London.

Speaking in the Commons, Barclay, the health secretary, said the plan would increase costs for NHS staff working in the capital.

Barclay was responding to a question from Louie French, the Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, who said the extension of the charge could lead to some nurses facing charges of £12.50 per shift, or £25 if working nights.

In response, a spokesperson for Khan said Barclay was ignoring health advice on this issue. The spokesperson said:

It is surprising for a health secretary to ignore the advice of their own chief medical officer.

Chris Whitty has been clear that air pollution is everyone’s problem. Not only is toxic air causing 4,000 premature deaths in the capital, it’s also expected to cost the NHS and social care system in London around £10.4bn by 2050.

Most vehicles, more than four in five, seen in the zone will not need to pay the Ulez charge.

It’s only the most polluting vehicles doing the most damage to our health that are affected.

While Caroline Nokes is virtually alone among Tory MPs in calling for Nadhim Zahawi to stand aside as Tory chair (see 9.31am), his colleagues have not exactly been rushing forward to say that he has done nothing wrong either. They seem to be taking the view that this is for the inquiry to decide.

But one Conservative member of the London assembly is a big Zahawi fan. This is from Tony Devenish, who has been on the assembly since 2016 and who has quoted approvingly a letter to the Daily Telegraph saying that being in dispute with HMRC can be a sign of entrepreneurial success.

At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning, asked if Rishi Sunak had ever paid a tax settlement to HM Revenue and Customs himself, the PM’s spokesperson was unable to give a clear no. As my colleague Peter Walker points out, that might not be significant; the spokesperson often doesn’t know the answer to questions like this. But, as Peter says, it would be worth hearing someone ask Sunak about this directly.

Asked if Rishi Sunak has ever, like Nadhim Zahawi, had to pay a tax settlement to HMRC, the PM’s spokesman said Sunak has always abided by the ministerial code, but he doesn’t have any more detail. Could easily be nothing but worth someone asking Sunak directly, you’d think.

— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) January 24, 2023

Labour frontbencher Alex Davies-Jones is under investigation for a possible breach of lobbying rules, PA Media reports. PA says:

Commons standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg has launched an inquiry into whether the shadow culture minister broke the MPs’ code of conduct with “paid advocacy”.

Davies-Jones, who has represented the Welsh constituency of Pontypridd since 2019, was understood to have referred herself to investigators and is cooperating fully.

She received a trip to Tokyo, Japan, valued at nearly £3,000 and paid for by the British Council last autumn.

On 8 November, the day after returning, she brought up the trip in the House of Commons, praising the council’s “brilliant work” in “educating people in our English language and using our arts and culture for the greatest good”.

She asked the Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan: “What more can the government do to support the British Council, not just in Japan, but across the world?”

Labour is not suspending Davies-Jones from her frontbench position because the party believes any breach of the rules would be minor and inadvertent.

Richard Sharp, the BBC chairman, will appear before the Commons culture committee a fortnight today to take questions about the claims that there was a conflict of interest in his appointment. In a letter, Damian Green, the acting committee chair, said the committee wanted to ask him about “the issues raised in your pre-appointment hearing and any developments since then”. Sharp has accepted, and the hearing will take place on the morning of Tuesday 7 February.

Labour says government plan to tackle ‘fire and rehire’ practices ‘not worth paper it’s written on’

Labour has dismissed a government plan to tackle so-called “fire and hire” practices as “not worth the paper it’s written on”.

The government claims the plan, which involves a new code of practice and potentially higher costs for rogue firms in employment tribunals, shows it is taking “strong action against unscrupulous employers”.

Grant Shapps, the business secretary, promised action on this when, as transport secretary, he had to deal with the consequences of P&O Ferries’ decision to sack 800 members of staff, with replacement workers being hired much more cheaply.

But the government is not attempting an outright ban on “fire and rehire”.

Instead, as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy explains in a news release, a code of practice will oblige employers not to use the threat of dismissal as a means of getting workers to acccept lower pay or worse conditions. It says:

Through a planned statutory code of practice, the government is protecting employees and cracking down on employers that use controversial dismissal tactics. The code, subject to a consultation first, will make it explicitly clear to employers that they must not use threats of dismissal to pressurise employees into accepting new terms, and that they should have honest and open-minded discussions with their employees and representatives …

This new statutory code of practice will set out employers’ responsibilities when seeking to change contractual terms and conditions of employment, including that businesses must consult with employees in a fair and transparent way when proposing changes to their employment terms.

Once in force, courts and employment tribunals will be able to take the code into account when considering relevant cases, including unfair dismissal. They will have the power to apply a 25% uplift to an employee’s compensation in certain circumstances if an employer is found to not comply with the statutory code.

Commenting on the plan, Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader and shadow secretary for the future of work, said:

This code isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. It’s shameful that nearly a year after the P&O Ferries scandal the Conservatives can only offer this weak half-measure, which they admit will allow fire and rehire tactics to continue.

If the Conservatives want to protect workers, they’d finally bring in the employment bill they promised but have abandoned. Instead, they’re bringing in a law to threaten nurses, firefighters and other key workers with the sack.

Labour says it would ban “fire and rehire”. But the government’s consultation document for its proposed new code of practice argues that an outright ban would be a mistake. It says:

Although there have been calls for the practice of dismissal and re-engagement to be banned outright, the government has judged that this would not be right as there are some situations in which dismissal and re-engagement can play a valid role as businesses may need the flexibility to use this option to save as many jobs as possible. We believe that this Code strikes the right balance between labour market flexibility and worker protections.





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