Stratford MP Nadhim Zahawi breaks silence on tax scandal as he swears commitment to constituency ahead of de-selection vote

Stratford MP Nadhim Zahawi has at last broken cover to comment on his future after being sacked over his tax affairs.

It follows an exclusive report in this week’s Stratford Herald that Mr Zahawi is facing the threat of being de-selected as the Conservative candidate at the next general election.

This sensational development comes after his ignominious sacking from the government for breaching the ministerial code over his tax affairs – which led to a settlement of around £5million to HMRC while serving as chancellor under Boris Johnson.

The Herald has been told that the question of de-selecting Mr Zahawi will be decided at meeting of Stratford Conservative Association’s executive council on Friday, 31st March.

The Herald has been asking Mr Zahawi for an interview and to address the concerns of his constituents since his sacking on 26th January, but to no avail.

However today (Sunday), in his first media since the scandal, Mr Zahawi told BBC One Politics Midlands that he was committed to being the member of parliament for the Stratford district.

He commented: “For now it’s really important to focus on the constituency and learn from the experience and hopefully make sure I am as good a member of parliament as I can be for the people of Stratford.”

He then somewhat falteringly went on to list other places in his constituency: “And the people in Alcester, Studley, Shipston… and Stratford. Across the board what they want to see is their member of parliament being their champion and that’s what I plan to do.”

Mr Zahawi's unpaid tax was in relation to profits from YouGov, the online polling company he co-founded and subsequently sold his shares in.

During Sunday's interview the embattled MP then went on to defend his conduct during the investigation into the non-payment of tax.

He pointed out that HMRC had concluded “that it was a careless rather than deliberate”.

Mr Zahawi also said he had been co-operative with the investigation into his taxes led by government ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus.

He said: “If the paperwork wasn’t correctly filled in I accept that. And I take full responsibility for that and I apologise for that. The important thing I think is to make sure… I remind people that actually what happened was the assessment from HMRC was that it was a careless not a deliberate issue, something I dealt with immediately, and I accepted without argument the settlement they put forward, and I move forward from there.”

For more on the deselection story see this week's Herald out now.