Tag Archives: nadhim zahawi

Sunak reshuffle road to oblivion?

By Andy Boddington | Thu 9th February 2023 - 6:04 pm

It seems to be a sign of a prime minister’s prowess that new departments are created or existing departments are reshaped during their tenure. All politicians want to leave their mark but there is always a parallel agenda. Promoting loyal supporters and getting rid of those causing trouble, and of course, those who have found to have broken the rules.

The need to replace the ambitious Nadhim Zahawi came after he was sacked as Chair of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio for breaching the ministerial code.  All that Rishi Sunak needed to do was to appoint a new Chair of the Conservative Party and give them a seat at the cabinet table.

But Sunak instead decided on a mini reshuffle.

The new department structure was heralded as delivering Rishi Sunak’s five promises: to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.

Grow the economy? Fair enough but not in the short term. Halve inflation? Only perhaps in the margins. Reduce debt? No way. Cut waiting lists? Irrelevant. Stop the boats? Of course not. The reorganisation of departments that might prove a lasting legacy for the UK but it will have no impact on the Tories electoral prospects.

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Mark Valladares

30 January 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 30th January 2023 - 11:30 pm
  • Zahawi – Sunak must withdraw Conservative Whip
  • ONS winter survey: A damning verdict on the Government’s record

Zahawi – Sunak must withdraw Conservative Whip

The Liberal Democrats have written to Rishi Sunak calling on him to withdraw the Conservative whip from Nadhim Zahawi.

In a letter to Sunak sent today, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said that Zahawi has shown he is not fit to represent his constituents, and that if he refuses to resign as an MP then he should have the Conservative whip withdrawn.

It comes after Nadhim Zahawi refused to apologise for failing to come clean about his tax affairs and …

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day – 30 January 2023: tax still shouldn’t be taxing…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 30th January 2023 - 7:30 am

I spent a chunk of my weekend completing my 2021/22 Self Assessment tax return. Yes, I know, “left it a bit late, didn’t you, Mark?”. Luckily, my tax return isn’t terribly complicated once I’ve found the required bits of information online and elsewhere.

Nadhim Zahawi appears to have had a rather more complex task or, should I say, his tax advisors. That’s partly a problem of his own creation – offshore trust funds aren’t obligatory – and partly the increasingly complex web of tax law in this country.

There is little doubt that, the more complex the tax system is, the more need there is for professional tax advisors and the more scope there is for creative uncertainty. The more you try to create opportunities in an effort to encourage what the Government of the day believes is desirable behaviour, the more you invite terribly clever people to find ways of taking advantage of the unintended consequences of those changes. People tend, often, to reduce their personal tax burden if they can. Wealthier people can pay to find the more obscure means of doing so, and the British legal and accounting professions are very, very good at delivering the desired outcome.

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Mark Valladares

25 January 2023 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Wed 25th January 2023 - 11:05 pm
  • Zahawi: What more will it take for Sunak to do the right thing
  • Govt lags behind key 20,000 police officer pledge by over 3,400
  • Powys Patients Waits in English Hospitals Raised in the Senedd
  • Wagner Group: Rishi Sunak must order an immediate inquiry

Zahawi: What more will it take for Sunak to do the right thing

Responding to the growing calls for Rishi Sunak to suspend Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative Party Chairman, including among his own party, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said:

Every day that Nadhim Zahawi clings on does more damage to Rishi Sunak’s credibility.

The Conservative Party is stuck in an endless cycle of sleaze and chaos, while the country suffers from a cost of living and NHS crisis.

What more will it take for Sunak to finally do the right thing and sack Zahawi, or at least suspend him for the duration of this investigation?

He promised his government would have integrity and accountability, but instead once again it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else.

Govt lags behind key 20,000 police officer pledge by over 3,400

New Police uplift statistics from the Home Office have revealed that the Government would need to double its police recruitment efforts in the next three months to meet its 20,000 targets as it lags behind by 3,427.

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservatives for being on track to break their key 2019 manifesto promise to recruit 20,000 new police officers by the end of March 2023.

The Government’s flagship crime policy lags behind the total by 3,427 – with only 3 months left to go.

Analysis from the Liberal Democrats shows to meet the target of 20,000 by March 2023, the Government would have to hire 130% more officers each month, up from 494 extra officers a month over the last six months to 1,142.

The most recent statistics reveal that 17 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have failed to recruit a single new officer in the last 2 months.

Responding, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

The Conservatives are too busy dealing with sleaze and scandal to properly tackle crime festering in our communities. They are letting down people across the country with their failure to recruit police officers and tackle crime.

Victims right across the country will be left without confidence in this Government and it’s all because of these broken promises and failures.

Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing where people feel safer in their areas and the Government is focused on cutting crime instead of squabbling in Downing Street.

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Mark Valladares

20-22 January 2023 – the weekend’s press releases (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd January 2023 - 5:14 pm
  • Zahawi: There must be an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this
  • Cleverly: Dog ate my homework type excuses simply won’t wash with the public
  • Boris loan: He must come to Parliament to explain his murky finances
  • Jane Dodds Responds to Cancelation of Young People’s Village at the Royal Welsh Show

Zahawi: There must be an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this

Responding to the latest statement from Nadhim Zahawi on his tax affairs, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said:

Zahawi and his Conservative Cabinet colleagues are arrogantly trying to brush this under the carpet.

There are facts that still

…

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Mark Pack

Two Conservative MPs call for mandatory gender quotas for company boards

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th September 2011 - 10:25 am

As the Daily Telegraph reports of the much touted book by Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi:

Sanctions are also suggested against non-executive directors of failed companies. The authors also oppose non-executives at systemically-important banks having other board roles and also want the law changed so directors of financial institutions that require recourse to public funds to prevent bankruptcy are legally barred from joining the board at other companies. They also want to tackle the cult of the CEO by encouraging the City to appoint co-chief executives.

“There’s this idea that the CEO is so revered that it’s very difficult ever for

…

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Opinion: Do we really want politicians to be “ordinary people”?

By Ben Maconick | Sat 23rd April 2011 - 1:25 pm

Recently Ed Miliband’s Labour Party TV broadcast expressed his frustration that the world of politics wasn’t like the real world. Considering that the entire broadcast was along the lines of painting Ed Miliband as an ordinary guy, it got me thinking on the subject of whether we really want our politicians to be ordinary people. It seems common sense that we want the people who represent us, to be like us. I would question this assumption, especially when we look at some of the other requirements we place on them.

The first requirement is obviously that they are knowledgeable about the …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Hattie tries to throw a “stinger” in front of voting reform

By Paul Walter | Wed 9th June 2010 - 4:20 pm

Prime Minister’s Questions is definitely becoming more subdued these days. The bellowing and ya-boo atmosphere has reduced by about 80% since the election. The Cumbrian shootings have dominated both sessions so far, which has added to the quietish feeling.

Harriet Harman has suddenly developed an interest in the electoral roll and the fact that “3.5 million people” who could be on it, aren’t. Fascinating. She seems to have suddenly come up with this as a reason to throw a sort of police “stinger” in front of voting reform – or at least constituency boundary re-drawing. She seems to have forgotten that her party was in power for thirteen years. Why didn’t they do something about electoral registration then? And, as David Cameron retorted, the last election was fought on recently redrawn boundaries anyway – which rather kiboshed Hattie’s argument.

Harman then had a go about CCTV. David Cameron went off on one, ending up about rights to enter people’s houses. He did make some good points about civil liberties during which Nick Clegg nodded very strongly. Harman raised an estate on her patch where they want CCTV coverage. Cameron said it was all about proportionality. If only he could say that about voting reform.

Good joke from Cameron:

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