Ex-city lawyer spent six months examining party chairman’s affairs
HE IS the former Magic Circle lawyer – and current Labour Party activist – who has spent the past six months investigating the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi.
Dan Neidle, who worked at City law firm Clifford Chance for 25 years, said he had intended to spend more time with his family when he quit last year and set up Tax Policy Associates Ltd.
It is described as a “unique nonprofit”, accompanied by a regular blog which aims to provide “expert and impartial” tax policy advice. Most recently, he has used it to publish detailed allegations about apparent irregularities in Mr Zahawi’s arrange- ments. After what he described as a “thoroughly entertaining few days” looking through the records of Yougov and Balshore Investments – a company Mr Zahawi founded and a firm he was linked to – Mr Neidle said he made multiple discoveries that seemed “odd”.
These included Balshore holding “founder shares” in Yougov, which Mr Zahawi would ordinarily have received himself. He also noted a £99,000 gift to Mr Zahawi from Balshore, as well as £24million of “completely untaxed” gains on Balshore’s Yougov shares.
The claims and the resultant political row have seen Mr Zahawi forced to
explain “careless and not deliberate” errors in his tax affairs.
Allies of the Tory chairman note that Mr Neidle is not politically neutral, and point to his work as a Labour supporter, member and campaigner.
Nadine Dorries, the former Culture Secretary, said yesterday it was “disappointing” that some coverage of his work had failed to mention his unsuccessful recent application to Labour’s National Constitutional Committee.
An email shared by Mr Neidle last night from Osborne Clarke, Mr Zahawi’s lawyers, asserted his tweets and blog “contain numerous inaccuracies and speculation… You are clearly not prepared to adopt an even-handed approach, as evidenced by the fact you have not been transparent about your roles within the Labour Party”.
They went on to suggest he had removed his listing as a candidate for Labour’s national committee from the party website.
Addressing his political leanings on Twitter, Mr Neidle has said: “I am a Labour Party member… Needless to say, my tax commentary has always been non-partisan. I’ve defended Sunak, Hunt, Rees-mogg and Cameron against accusations of tax avoidance.”
But his work centring on Mr Zahawi has thrust him into the limelight. Mr Neidle published tweets and blog posts, from July onwards, suggesting a number of the Tory chairman’s public claims had been wrong.
This led to an email from Osborne Clarke demanding he retracted his allegation of “dishonesty”. Undeterred, Mr Neidle published the letters he was sent and continued to allege a lack of transparency in a series of posts. Last week’s revelations that Mr Zahawi had indeed paid millions of pounds to HMRC has put both the row and the tax blogger back in the headlines.
Mr Neidle continues to believe there are “four key considerations” in play, and has called for Mr Zahawi to reveal more details. He wrote last weekend: “No more dodging questions, please, Nadhim. No more libel threats. Time to apologise.”
Only time will tell how the row is resolved. But for now, Mr Neidle continues his crusade, while his work reaches an ever-growing audience.