The prime minister may have thought that he had acted decisively in sacking his party chairman, albeit after a delay of several months, but he should be under no illusion about the damage the Zahawi tax affair has done to his personal ratings. Three months into his premiership, Rishi Sunak has lost his lead over Sir Keir Starmer on “best prime minister”, according to Ipsos/Mori, partly as result of the way he has handled his former party chairman.
Mr Sunak has enjoyed no “bounce” in the polls, and the Conservatives remain about 25 points behind Labour in the voting intention figures. At the cabinet awayday at Chequers last week, their election strategist Isaac Levido reportedly told the Tory high command that they had carved a “narrow path” to victory. It seems to be tapering away to a near-invisible track with every fresh dawn and fresh scandal.
Unfortunately for Mr Sunak, the departure of Nadhim Zahawi from government appears not to be the end of the matter. Questions about what the prime minister, and his two Conservative predecessors, knew about Mr Zahawi’s wrangles with the tax authorities – and when – persist. It remains strange that so many serious allegations about the then chancellor of the exchequer should have emerged into the public domain, from last July onwards, yet provoked so little interest from the three premiers Mr Zahawi served.
