UK Politics

New chancellor Nadhim Zahawi’s finances were secretly investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA), The Independent can disclose.A senior serving Whitehall figure has revealed that a number of individuals were formally approached by officials from the NCA about the matter in 2020.The NCA said they were seeking information about multimillionaire Mr Zahawi’s finances, stated the source. The inquiry was codenamed “Operation Catalufa” and is understood to have involved the agency’s International Corruption Unit.Catalufa, known as “Popeye Catalufa”, is a species of ray finned fish, orange in colour, found in deep waters in the Pacific.Whitehall officials were told the inquiry was top secret and that Mr Zahawi had not been informed about it. The NCA inquiry did not lead to any action against Mr Zahawi. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by him.The first Mr Zahawi knew about the matter was when he was informed by The Independent on Wednesday.His initial reaction was: “There was no such investigation by [the] NCA. I would know. Right?”When told that The Independent had established that the NCA had looked into his business affairs, he replied: “The NCA never approached me or told me anything ever in my career.”He added: “I have paid all due taxes and obeyed all financial laws and regulations.”Asked if Mr Johnson was aware of the NCA investigation when he appointed Mr Zahawi chancellor, a No 10 spokesperson said: “All checks were made.”Pressed to say if Mr Johnson had been told about the investigation into Mr Zahawi, the spokesman added: “The usual pre-appointment declarations were made by the minister and any necessary checks completed.”The Zahawi/NCA riddle started several days ago when Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s former senior No 10 aide, posted a sarcastic tweet about former Cabinet reshuffle discussions with Mr Johnson in which he described how ministers’ personal and political shortcomings were aired.Referring to the characterisation of one unnamed cabinet minister, Mr Cummings’ tweet said: “Under investigation by NCA (he doesn’t know).”The identity of Mr Zahawi as the minister referred to by Mr Cummings was disclosed to The Independent by a separate source with detailed knoweldge of the police inquiry. The individual also stated that Mr Zahawi had not known of the NCA inquiry.“They didn’t tell him because they were trawling for information,” said the individual.The controversy comes less than 24 hours after Mr Zahawi replaced Rishi Sunak at the Treasury.If Mr Johnson is brought down as Prime Minister, loyalist Mr Zahawi, a popular figure among Tory MPs, is one of the main contenders to succeed him. More

The powerful 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers have pulled back from a threat to change party rules to allow another confidence vote in Boris Johnson.The group decided it would be unfair to ditch the 12-month grace period currently enjoyed by the prime minister before committee elections can take place on Monday.A source on the committee said the group does not expect Mr Johnson to remain in power until Monday, as a group of cabinet ministers headed to No 10 on Wednesday night to tell the PM it is time to go. More

A delegation of cabinet ministers including the newly appointed chancellor Nadhim Zahawi is preparing to tell Boris Johnson to resign from No 10 after mass resignations from the ministerial ranks.The move could represent a fatal blow to Mr Johnson’s embattled premiership with MPs from across all wings of the Conservative party also publicly declaring the prime minister no longer has their confidence.In the wake of the resignations of chancellor Rishi Sunak and the health secretary Sajid Javid, who urged the cabinet to act on Wednesday, the prime minister has haemorrhaged support across the Tory ranks.A government source told The Independent the delegation of ministers includes Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, Chris Heaton Harris, the chief whip, and Mr Zahawi, the new chancellor, and the Welsh secretary Simon Hart.International trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has also been seen arriving at Downing Street while long-standing cabinet ally Brandon Lewis now believes Mr Johnson’s position is “untenable”.Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, told the prime minister to resign during a private meeting earlier on Wednesday, but has remained in post.Mr Johnson, who was appearing at the Commons Liaison Committee as the news emerged, was told here was a delegation of cabinet ministers waiting for him at No 10 to tell him to quit by the Labour MP Darren Jones.But the prime minister, who has defied calls to resign, repeated the line that he was “not going to get into a running commentary on political events”. More

A Conservative MP has pressed ‘send’ on a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson while sitting opposite the prime minister at a parliamentary committee.Huw Merriman wrote to Mr Johnson on Wednesday to tell him he believed he had failed “in terms of judgment, competency and integrity” and that he should resign.His letter was posted online at 3.41pm, while Mr Merriman was siting in a meeting of the Liaison Committee opposite Mr Johnson.Tom Peck, the The Independent’s sketchwriter, who attended the committee hearing in person said: “Huw Merriman’s sitting opposite me at the liaison committee. “Pretty sure he actually looked Johnson in the eye when he pressed send on this.”In the letter, the Battle and Bexhill MP said he had always “expressed grave concern about the events and culture at Number 10, which demonstrated that there were serious issues with the judgement, decision-making and accountability” there.Noting that he had wanted to see whether “lessons had been learnt” after the Partygate affair, he added: “Events of the past few days, however, have demonstrated a further failure on the part of the prime minister, in terms of judgement, competency, and integrity. This tells me that lessons have not been learnt.”We cannot continue like this. This current situation is causing inertia in government and if we allow standards expected of those in public service to fall, we will lose the trust of the public and we will never attract high calibre, trustworthy, and hard-working individuals into politics or public service.”Mr Merriman added that he now believed the prime minister’s position was “untenable”.The MP, who chairs the transport committee, used his questions to the prime minister to suggest that “inertia in No 10” was slowing progress on deploying crucial policies like road pricing, which had been “sat on for three months”.Mr Johnson said the claim was “nonsense”. More

Michael Gove has privately told Boris Johnson it is time to quit as prime minister after suffering a slew of devastating resignations, including two senior cabinet ministers.The levelling up secretary, who was absent as Mr Johnson faced a grilling from Tory MPs in the Commons, told the prime minister he must resign at a meeting on Wednesday morning.It comes as Mr Johnson fights for his political survival, with dozens of frontbenchers and ministerial aides resigning their posts, and Tory MPs demanding a second confidence vote.However, just hours after the exchange, first reported by the Daily Mail, the prime minister defied calls to quit, telling MPs he had a “colossal mandate” to continue in No 10.Mr Gove famously pulled his support from Mr Johnson’s first Tory leadership bid in 2016 in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, saying he had “reluctantly” concluded the then mayor of London “cannot provide the leadership of build the team for the task ahead”.The pair both ran in the 2019 leadership race following Theresa May’s resignation from No 10, with Mr Gove given a position in Mr Johnson after the former foreign secretary won the race.Mr Gove has until now remained loyal to the prime minister – including through the Partygate scandal – first serving as Cabinet Office minister and in his current role as levelling up secretary.More follows More

Boris Johnson’s leadership is very much on the brink, with around two dozen MPs having quit government jobs in protest at his leadership.But on paper the prime minister is technically safe as Tory leader, and cannot be forcibly ousted under existing Conservative rules.That is because Mr Johnson has already survived a no-confidence vote last month.41 per cent of Tory MPs voted against him, but a majority was needed to force him from office.Under the existing rules, there can now be no new no confidence vote for a year – the matter is officially settled.The hope by those resigning over the last 24 hours is that Mr Johnson will realise the game is up and resign from his job of his own accord.But the prime minister has a reputation for brazening-out scandal, so his critics in the Tory party have a back-up plan if it does not voluntarily go.If Johnson doesn’t quit, they will simply change the rules of the game so he can be forced out. They are confident they could win a second no confidence vote.The Conservative party’s ruling 1922 committee executive meets at 4pm on Wednesday, followed by a full meeting of all MPs at 5pm. The ruling executive is made up of 18 members in total, including six officers. This includes a chairman, two vice chairs, two executive secretaries, and a treasurer.Existing members of the executive have been lukewarm on the idea of changing the rules because they worry about the precedent it would set.But the roles are up for re-election, with nominations opening later today. This is because the committee’s executive is re-elected every time there is a Queen’s Speech.The first meeting to swear in the new executive would be next Wednesday, with the first opportunity to change the rules the week after that. This means a vote to oust Mr Johnson could happen before MPs leave Westminster for their summer break on 21 July. MPs critical of Mr Johnson are already organising around changing the rules.A change could happen even sooner if existing members of the executive decide in the end to change the rules themselves.It is not clear exactly what the rules would change to, but they would likely be modified in a way that made a new vote of no confidence against the prime minister possible. Would the vote of no confidence by Tory MPs go a different way to last month? It seems likely. The result for Mr Johnson in June was already poor by the standards of previous leaders, who have resigned out of principle with better levels of support. But in the last 24 hours MPs who had openly supported the PM have turned against him and said the current situation cannot continue. There will be no shortage of MPs voting against him, even on a pragmatic basis to put and end to the turmoil More

Six more ministers have quit Boris Johnson’s government, as the beleaguered prime minister struggles to save his ailing premiership.It comes as Michael Gove has told Mr Johnson that he must step down. The Levelling Up secretary delivered the message at a meeting on Wednesday morning, The Independent understands.Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Julia Lopez, Lee Rowley, Neil O’Brien, Alex Burghart and Mims Davies all announced they are resigning – taking the total number of departing ministers on Wednesday to 12.In a joint letter, five ministers stated the government “cannot function given the issues that have come to light and the way in which they have been handled”. Ms Davies then resigned as employment minister, saying the Tories “need a fresh start”.Treasury minister John Glen and Home Office minister Victoria Atkins are among a group of six ministers to quit the government earlier on Wednesday, citing the PM’s “poor judgement” and lack of integrity.Jo Churchill quit as health minister shortly, Stuart Andrew resigned as housing minister, Robin Walker stepped down as schools standards minister, and Will Quince left as children and families minister.More than 25 resignations of ministers, aides and envoys have followed the sensational exit of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid from cabinet on Tuesday night.The prime minister now faces an uphill battle to cling on at No 10 after his handling of the row over scandal-hit ex-deputy chief whip Mr Pincher sparked outrage among Tory colleagues.A growing number of Tory MPs demand an immediate rule change to the 1922 Committee of backbenchers’ rulebook in order to force Mr Johnson from office.As the steady drip-feed of resignation letters from junior ministers and ministerial aides continued on Wednesday, new Tory MPs declared their opposition to Mr Johnson carrying on at No 10.The timeline for Mr Johnson to face another no confidence vote in his leadership could be drastically shortened if senior Tories on the 1922 Committee back a rule change later on Wednesday afternoon.Under the current rules of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives, the Prime Minister cannot face another challenge within a year of his shaky victory last month.But this could be torn up if the group’s executive – meeting at 4pm – go ahead with a proposed change to the rules as Mr Johnson’s authority evaporates with a series of ministerial resignations.Robert Halfon, who is on the 1922 Committee and has remained loyal, said: “If there is a vote for a change in leadership, I will now vote for that change.”Senior Tory MP Gary Sambrook received a round of applause from the Labour benches after calling on Mr Johnson to resign at PMQs.The executive secretary of the party’s 1922 Committee, accused Mr Johnson of attempting “to blame other people for mistakes”, and told him directly: “Take responsibility and resign”.Lee Anderson, a 2019 red wall Tory, also questioned the prime minister’s integrity and withdrew support, saying the PM’s decision to give Mr Pincher a job was “not a good appointment”.Labour leader Keir Starmer ripped into Mr Johnson and the multiple Tory resignations – ridiculing it as “the first case of the sinking ship fleeing the rat”.Mr Javid called on his former cabinet colleagues to oust Mr Johnson – telling the Commons he had quit because he had concluded that the PM was “the problem” and would not change.Calling on his former colleagues to act, the departing health secretary said: “They will have their own reason [for staying]. But they have a choice … Let’s be clear, not doing something is an active decision.” More

Boris Johnson has already endured nightmarish Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday in the wake of a dramatic evening of resignations, and must now appear before the House of Commons Liaison Committee.The chaos began when chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid both stepped down last night saying they had lost confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership after it emerged he had not been honest about his decision-making in hiring Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip.The latter’s resignation from that role last Thursday after admitting to drunkenly groping two male colleagues at private member’s club in central London prompted a slew of allegations about his conduct, which appears to have been an open secret in Westminster.Mr Johnson’s belated admission that he had been briefed on the accusations against Mr Pincher, despite previously saying he had not known about the “specific” allegations against him – his hand apparently forced by an intervention from former senior civil servant Lord McDonald – was apparently too much for Mr Sunak and Mr Javid.Having been forced to defend the PM over a slew of scandals since last autumn, from Owen Paterson to Partygate and on, they tendered their resignations and were swiftly followed by no fewer than 18 others.The PM moved quickly to appoint Nadhim Zahawi and Steve Barclay as his new chancellor and health secretary respectively, as well as Michelle Donelan as his replacement education secretary to replace Mr Zahawi, but, despite the apparent support of the rest of his Cabinet, the damage looks mortal.At PMQs, he was told to resign by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who branded his remaining front benchers “the charge of the lightweight brigade” and “a Z-list cast of nodding dogs”.The SNP’s Ian Blackford, clearly enjoying himself immensely, called Mr Johnson a “dead parrot” in another Monty Python reference and accused him of “clinging to a desperate fantasy” while Conservatives David Davis, Tim Loughton and Gary Sambrook also broke ranks to suggest it was time for the PM to go before Mr Javid delivered a moving and utterly withering resignation statement explaining his exit.Bruised from all of that and with barely time to swallow his lunch, Mr Johnson must now appear before Sir Bernard Jenkin’s Liaison Committee at 3pm, a gathering bringing together the heads of Parliament’s select committees, at which he will again be called upon to explain himself over the Pincher affair. The meeting will be broadcast on BBC Parliament and covered live on The Independent website via our liveblog. More