Two new scandals from British Conservatives dot Sunak

The youth, the Indian origin and the image of responsibility of Rishi Sunak, after the debacle of his predecessors in Downing Street, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, produced the impression of a new beginning.

But the Conservative Party had been in power for more than a decade and Sunak has been part of the British government in recent years.

The skeletons accumulated in the closet begin to splash the prime minister.

In the last hours, two official investigations have been launched into the problems with the Treasury of the former Minister of Economy and current president of the Conservative Party, Nadhim Zahawi, and about the involvement of the new BBC president, Richard Sharp, in helping Johnson , precisely who appointed him to the position, to obtain a personal loan of more than 900,000 euros that would allow him to get out of trouble.

"Integrity and accountability are aspects to which I attach great importance, and this matter raises some questions in that regard that must be answered," Sunak said this Monday, during a visit to a hospital in Northamptonshire, before announcing that he had ordered an investigation into the arrangements with the Zahawi Treasury.

“I have asked our independent adviser [the position is officially defined as Independent Ministerial Interests Adviser] to get to the bottom of the matter, fully investigate the case and establish all the facts, so that I can explain to me whether Zahawi complied with what is established in the Ministerial Code”, announced Sunak.

The Ministerial Code is the set of ethical rules and incompatibilities or conflicts of interest that members of the British Government are obliged to comply with or avoid, respectively.

The text has the prime minister's approval and backing - the current code was published under Johnson - and parliamentary custom dictates that any infringement of its content should lead to resignation, although the Conservatives have interpreted the rule more very lax in recent years.

The figure of the independent adviser was established in 2006, during the mandate of Labor Tony Blair.

He has the capacity to investigate, and to propose an investigation, but must first have the authorization of the Prime Minister.

During the little more than three years of the Johnson Government, two advisers resigned after being ignored.

Alex Allan left after Downing Street locked up its findings that then Home Secretary Priti Patel had harassed members of her department at work.

Christopher Geid resigned after finding out that Johnson, whom he initially exonerated, had misled him about the money he and his wife spent decorating his official apartment.

Zahawi's fiscal dealings

The new independent adviser, Laurie Magnus, will have to investigate the agreements that Zahawi, 55, and Economy Minister with Johnson, reached with the Treasury after selling the survey company that he co-founded in 2000, and which today is one of the most relevant in the UK: YouGov.

Part of the shares were in the name of Zahawi's father, and were owned by a company registered in Gibraltar under the name of Balshore Investments.

“After a negotiation process with HMRC [

, the UK Treasury], agreed that my father was entitled to ownership of YouGov founder shares, but disagreed on how they had been allocated.

The final conclusion is that it was negligence, and not something deliberate," Zahawi explained in a prior statement.

When shortly after

newspaper pointed out that, of the almost five million pounds (about 5.6 million euros) that the current president of the Conservative Party had paid to the Treasury, 30% had been as a penalty, Zahawi did not wanted to confirm or deny this detail.

The Labor opposition has demanded the immediate dismissal of the politician, who has announced his intention not to speak further on the matter until the investigation is concluded, and that he has no intention of resigning.

Sunak has expressed, for the moment, his confidence in Zahawi to continue leading the political formation, a position with ministerial rank (hence the investigation by the independent adviser).

Suspicions on the BBC

Sunak must also answer for another alleged scandal with which he had nothing to do directly, but which calls into question the appointment policy carried out by the conservatives in recent years.

Richard Sharp, a 66-year-old former investment banker and new chairman of the BBC — the black beast of many conservatives, who accuse the public corporation of a left-wing and anti-Brexit bias — has asked the board of directors of the entity to investigate whether there was a conflict of interest during his public contracting at the head of this institution.

revealed on Sunday that Sharp had been key in obtaining a guarantor for Johnson to obtain a loan of more than 900,000 euros at the end of 2020.

The then prime minister was burdened by financial responsibilities stemming from his divorce from Marina Wheeler, to whom he was married for 25 years, as well as money he had been forced to repay for decorating the Downing Street apartment.

Sharp, a friend of Johnson and of Sunak himself, put the then Prime Minister's Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case [the position that is equivalent to the top boss of the body of senior officials], with Sam Blyth, a Canadian businessman who has described as an old friend.

Ultimately, it was Blyth who endorsed the loan.

"Case and I agreed that I would stay away from the matter to avoid any conflict of interest," Sharp explained to the BBC itself.

Both Sunak and Johnson himself have come out in defense of their friend and of the transparency and correctness of the selection process.

“Sharp has no idea about my personal finances, and this is all a bunch of nonsense,” former Prime Minister Johnson has said.

Follow all the international information on

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber