Senior Tory backbencher investigated over taxes
A SENIOR Tory backbencher was also investigated over their tax by HMRC, it has emerged, as it admitted giving misleading information about the inquiry into Nadhim Zahawi.
The tax authority has apologised for saying no government minister was being investigated last summer and blamed the error on a search of only part of its records, the Financial Times reported.
HMRC also admitted a mistake in a response to a freedom of information request from Dan Neidle, a tax expert.
Officials had initially told Mr Neidle in June that a minister was under investigation, but then retracted this as the person referred to was a backbench MP, and not a minister.
It comes as Labour demanded an end to lawsuits that seek to silence journalists amid a row over Mr Zahawi’s reported use of “Slapps”, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.
Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, has written to Dominic Raab demanding that he “acts urgently” to stamp out the practice. In the letter seen by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Reed accuses the Conservative Party chairman of using legal threats to “silence critics” of his tax affairs.
Mr Neidle and The Independent have both accused Mr Zahawi of threatening “Slapps”, which are essentially threats of defamation action which are designed to dissuade the disclosure of information.
Their primary aim is to scare the target into non-publication, with the litigant indifferent to whether or not they would win the case.
Such tactics have also been used by Russian oligarchs including Roman Abramovich, the former Chelsea owner, to suppress negative stories.
This week it emerged Yevgeny Prigozhin, the sanctioned head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, instructed his lawyers to sue a British journalist for libel in the same fashion.
Mr Raab, the Justice Secretary, promised in March last year that the Government would bring forward legislation to crack down on Slapps.
But it has still not materialised almost a year later and ministers have said they will table the new law “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.