What is it with party chairs and their taxes? Having brought down Nadhim Zahawi, tax lawyer Dan Neidle has now set his sights on ex-Labour Party chair Ian Lavery. According to The i, Lavery is “refusing to confirm he paid tax on £140,000″ in unexplained payments and written-off loans from the Northumberland National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Now Neidle is asking questions… 

It’s virtually a mirror image of the Zahawi saga: Lavery is dodging questions, claiming HMRC has already conducted a “desktop review” of his taxes, and claiming “no further assessment [is] necessary”. Apparently i News contacted him weeks ago, with no response…

Neidle added:

“When there are financial irregularities, undocumented payments, and uncommercial arrangements involving loans, it is reasonable to ask whether the correct tax has been paid on the payments. It is a very simple question, and should have a simple answer… I fear that, like Mr Zahawi, Mr Lavery has decided the best response to people asking legitimate questions about his tax affairs is to provide bland statements that all tax has been properly paid, ignore the specific questions being asked, and hope it all goes away. I expect, like Mr Zahawi, he will be disappointed.”

Perhaps now Rishi’s had a spring clean of CCHQ, this is something Lee Anderson could bring up given his previous beef with Lavery…

Nadhim Zahawi’s local association has just emailed members following Nadhim’s fall from grace yesterday, and it doesn’t read well for the embattled MP. Amid calls for him to resign from Parliament – admittedly spearheaded by the LibDems – the association flags the upcoming selection vote as per the party’s constitution, and ominously says “We look forward to campaigning and re-electing a Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the next General Election”. Notably not committing to Nadhim as their candidate…

The notice says the association “respects the result of [the] enquiry [sic], along with the decision and action by the Prime Minister”. 

“we commend Mr Zahawi for being a hardworking, collaborative and approachable constituency MP with an open door for residents, many of whom he has helped.  We are confident he will continue to serve constituents conscientiously from the back benches.

Stratford-on-Avon Conservative Association is bound by the constitution of the Conservative & Unionist Party. In preparation for the next General Election all Conservative Associations will be selecting their parliamentary candidates and in the coming weeks Stratford-on-Avon Conservative Association will follow due process for the selection procedure.”

It doesn’t sound positive for Zahawi’s fortunes at said re-selection battle…

Rishi’s had a lot on his plate over the past month, from strikes to seatbelt scandal, and it’s been reflected in his popularity amongst conservatives. Conservative Home’s latest cabinet league table is out, and the Prime Minister is on 2.9%, down 10.2% on the last outing. Suella Braverman has also taken a hit, she’s on 17.3% – a decrease of 15%. Although Jeremy Hunt hasn’t lost any support, he hardly has reason to celebrate. He’s sat on -6.2%.

The top 5 most popular cabinet members remain unchanged. As the month’s big winner – no doubt from the government’s response to Scotland’s gender bill – Alister Jack climbs by 6%. Sunak’s decision to sack Nadhim Zahawi won’t have made him any enemies – at least from ConHome readers. The former Party Chairman saw his support plummet by a staggering 67.3% before his sacking…

Nadhim Zahawi is a charmer and a popular figure within the party. He will be wondering if his remarkable journey from refugee without a word of English to MP for Shakespeare’s hometown and holder of one of the highest offices of the crown has come to an end. He plans to stay on as a loyal backbench MP. Even with the Tories 20 points behind in the polls his seat is still forecast to be held by the Tories. It was only a few months ago that he threw in his hat to become leader of the party and Prime Minister. Hope remains eternal…

You have got to respect the ability of Gove to consummately switch lines on Zahawi in minutes. Gove sounded distinctly more relaxed once Zahawi’s sacking was announced twenty minutes later. Smooth…