Sir Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s independent ethics adviser, found that there had been a ‘serious breach’ of the ministerial code.

The former Chancellor has now been sacked as the Conservative Party chairman after it was found that he had failed to disclose that HMRC was investigating his tax affairs.

The probe was launched after Zahawi admitted paying a settlement to HMRC totalling £4.8m regarding a tax dispute related to his family trust, Balshore Investments, related to the sale of his share in YouGov, the polling company he founded in 2000. 

Sir Laurie said the former Chancellor had ‘missed many chances’ to be open about his tax affairs, citing Zahawi’s failures to update his register of interests until more than a year after HMRC started an enquiry into his taxes.

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