Mishal Husain skewering this Tory minister over Nadhim Zahawi’s £5m tax bill is a fabulous listen
Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi was clinging on to his job – at the time of writing – despite the mounting furore over his tax affairs.
Zahawi, you’ll no doubt know by now, resolved a multimillion-pound tax dispute with HMRC by paying a penalty during his short time as chancellor under Boris Johnson.
The total settlement is understood to have been around £5m – nice work if you can get it – with Zahawi describing the error in his tax affairs as ‘careless and not deliberate’.
We mention this because home office minister Chris Philp was doing the media rounds today and didn’t have the most comfortable time of it on Radio 4’s Today, where he was absolutely skewered by presenter Mishal Husain.
And it’s well worth two minutes and a bit of your time.
Chris Philp’s car crash interview on #r4today over Nadhim Zahawi’s carelessness. 🤦
Mishal Husain: Does the PM therefore think it’s acceptable for senior member of the govt to be negligent in their tax affairs?
Chris Philp: This word careless has been put into the public domain pic.twitter.com/Im7rtIwNoC
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) January 24, 2023
Ooof
Mishal Husain: "Does the PM consider it acceptable for a senior member of the govt to be in the position of paying a penalty to the taxman-because we do know that happened?"
Chris Philip (minister): “I think it's important to establish the facts."
Mishal: "That is a fact.”
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 24, 2023
So much to choose from, but we think our favourite bit is the big Philp swallow about three quarters of the way through.
Crime minister and shameless government bullshit pedlar Chris Philp on @bbcr4today strenuously defending Sunak, Zahawi and Johnson against all allegations by repeatedly stressing that he knows nothing about any of this stuff and has literally no idea what he’s talking about.
— Nicholas Pegg (@NicholasPegg) January 24, 2023
Sometimes TV captures things radio can’t, but in this interview you can hear Chris Philp blinking.
— Tom Hamilton (@thhamilton) January 24, 2023
Who better to defend Nadhim Zahawi than Chris Philp, the man whose company went bust in 2008 owing £500,000 in unpaid tax?#r4today
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) January 24, 2023
The Chris Philp interview on R4 saw him repeatedly insist that we “don’t know” what happened with Nadhim Zahawi’s tax penalty and thus it’s impossible to take action without a full investigation. That’s a slightly curious line in that they could just… ask Zahawi.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) January 24, 2023
Minister Chris Philp vigorously defending Zahawi and Sunak over tax scandal and Boris Johnson over appointment of Richard Sharp as BBC chair.
That’ll be Chris Philp, sacked four months ago as Chief Sec to Treasury after key role in Liz Truss’s disaster budget#BBCR4Today
— Paul Johnson (@paul__johnson) January 24, 2023
And it turned out Philp was having a bit of a morning of it, just in case you missed this.
Jon Kay – With all these allegations about govt behaviour… the public will think this govt has ran out of time?
Chris Philp -Rishi Sunak doesn’t try to brush things under the carpet..
Jon Kay – He said the Zahawi case was all dealt with last week at #PMQs? #BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/ppF5Da6cYh
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) January 24, 2023
Or indeed this.
‘Which is more embarrassing a former Prime Minister using the chairman of the BBC as a financial fixer or a former Chancellor who can’t get his tax sums right?’@NickFerrariLBC puts Home Office Minister Chris Philp on the spot. pic.twitter.com/GCBOsbrgmR
— LBC (@LBC) January 24, 2023
Gulp. Time for a lie down, minister?
Source Twitter @Haggis_UK