expediting the license for authorising the use of weapons for civilians. a bus has plunged into a ravine in pakistan, killing at least 41 passengers. novak djokovic has won his tenth australian open tennis tournament, beating greece s stefanos tsitsipas in straight sets in the men s final. the british prime minister, rishi sunak, has sacked the chairman of his conservative party, nadhim zahawi. his dismissal comes after an independent investigation of mr zahawi s tax affairs. these have been the subject of growing controversy since it emerged that he had to pay a penalty to the tax authorities. the prime minister said the investigation made clear that there has been a serious breach of the ministerial code . mr sunak received the report from sir laurie magnus, the independent adviser on ministers interests. sir laurie told the prime minister that certain omissions by mr zahawi fell short of the standards that ministers are expected to abide by. he concluded, i consider t
Forensic analysis, and that is what sir lawrie provided. so, that was michael gove talking to laura kuenssberg. david, pretty much straight after that we got labour s reaction to all of this. what did they have to say? well, the line we are hearing from many people who are critical of how rishi sunak has handled this was that there were grounds to sack nadhim zahawi before he even asked his ethics adviser to look into all of this. and we heard that put to michael gove there, the fact that we knew that when he was chancellor he paid a penalty to hmrc. there were also questions circulating about how much rishi sunak knew and when, and perhaps it was put into the bear pit of prime minister s questions without quite knowing the full picture here. that would be grounds in normal situations to be very displeased when one of your ministers had let you do that. that was along the lines of what we had labour saying this morning. it was bridget philipson who was on the laura kuenssberg programme
Also, lawrie magnus goes into the detail of an interview nadhim zahawi gave where he said that it was smears to say that hmrc were looking into him. lawrie magnus said this wasn t as open and transparent as a government minister is supposed to be. this report went to the prime minister and it looks like the prime minister took quite swift action on this. he wrote in this letter to nadhim zahawi that there has been a serious breach of the ministerial code. as a result, i have informed you of my decision to remove you from your position in his majesty s government. this was all going on moments before michael gove, the government minister who was out on the airwaves this morning talking on behalf of the government, was on the laura kuenssberg programme. he had to immediately respond to this. here s what he had to say. when facts emerged about the position in which nadhim found himself, the prime minister said that we need an independent investigation. sir lawrie magnus who, as you pointe
Rapidly at the situation. he concluded his report, wrote to the prime minister i think earlier today and then the prime minister immediately upon receipt of the letter decided that nadhim could no longer stay in the cabinet. but why seven days ago did nadhim zahawi and rishi sunak appear |to think that it was ok for somebody| who had paid a penalty to the taxman while being the boss- of the taxman to stay in post? because i think, to many of our| viewers, last week that seemed absolutely blatantly like something that wasn t sustainable. well, as ever, it s always important to make sure that all the facts are investigated fully and properly. and that is why sir lawrie magnus was given the opportunity to do so, why he has concluded as he did, and why the prime minister has acted as he did. as a general rule, i think it is important when allegations are raised that they are investigated promptly, but also we shouldn t rush tojudgment before there has been that investigation. and again
Of parliament. you have to stand down as a minister, not always, it appears nowadays, but generally that is the case. but why does he then have to stand down as a member of parliament as well? have to stand down as a member of parliament as well? there have been auestions parliament as well? there have been questions about parliament as well? there have been questions about his parliament as well? there have been questions about his behaviour, - parliament as well? there have been questions about his behaviour, we i questions about his behaviour, we now know that his behaviour in this was unacceptable. at that point you have to question, in line what rishi sunak himself said about professionalism and accountability, you have to be accountable for those mistakes and if you haven t acted with integrity, there has to be some accounting for it. i don t think he has acted with integrity in this. we know he breached the ministerial code. you have to be able to say to your constituents t