Nadhim Zahawi tells BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg ‘I’m sorry’ over £5m HMRC.

Former chancellor and Warwickshire MP Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he was sorry for over £5m to HMRC. Last year, the Stratford MP came under pressure after he admitted paying a settlement to HM Revenue & Customs following a “careless and unintentional” tax error related to his YouGov stake.

He went on to be dismissed by the Prime Minister. This morning, just days after announcing he would not stand at the next general election, he appeared on the BBC’s Sunday program with Laura Kuenssberg.

The presenter quizzed him about the HMRC investigation and said: “As you prepare to stand down, there are some questions about what happened when you were removed from government by Rishi Sunak, there are some questions you never answered.

“There was an independent report that said you were not transparent enough about an investigation into your taxes by HMRC, are you sorry for how you handled that?” to which the local MP said: “Of course, as I said in my retirement letter, my mistakes are my own.

“I regret that when we had two years of agreement with HMRC, I probably should have been more explicit in the details of the ministerial statement about how the agreement was reached. This was my own mistake.”

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The presenter added: “Are you ready to say why you paid a penalty to the taxman, following what happened, how much you paid and what happened?”

The long-serving local MP said he was covering the matter in his memoirs, but added: “HMRC found it was an inadvertent and careless mistake. They (HMRC) have also accepted that I am not the beneficiary of an off-shore. structure or trust but they thought that the share allocation at YouGov when it was first launched should have had more shares in my name.

“As reported, the total payment was just £5 million.” The host said: “That’s what you paid, nearly £5m?” to which he said: – Absolutely.

He pointed out that while it turned out to be “unintentional and careless”, there was still a penalty attached, which he “fully accepted”.

The deputy added that he did not reject, especially since he was chancellor, and it would have been a “total abuse of power”.

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