Punters think it is almost all over for Nadhim Zahawi
The extraordinary thing about today is that Sunak has not yet acted on Zahawi. He’s still there doing heaven knows what damage to his party.
One of the things about being a leader is that you have to have it in yourself to sack those of your team when the need arises. The first objective for the Prime Minister is to maintain the reputation of his government and allowing this story to dominate the news yet again isn’t very smart.
The message that comes is that when the chips are down Sunak is weak. This is how the Indy is reporting it:
Rishi Sunak is in danger of “looking indecisive” as the ethics inquiry into Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs “drags on”, Conservative MPs have told The Independent – as No 10 revealed no deadline had been set for its conclusion. Former Tory leader Lord Hague had urged Mr Sunak to ensure a “very quick” resolution to the probe into whether there had been any breaches of the ministerial code, as Downing Street said only that it would be conducted “swiftly” and would be “thorough”.