Jeremy Hunt increases pressure on Nadhim Zahawi as he says he’s never paid a tax fine while more Tories come out to suggest the party chairman stand down over payment to HMRC

• Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has revealed that he has never paid a fine to HMRC 
• It comes days after Rishi Sunak ordered probe into Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs  

Jeremy Hunt has piled pressure on Nadhim Zahawi by revealing he has never paid a fine to HMRC.

The Chancellor, who initially declined to say whether he had paid a penalty, reluctantly joined the Prime Minister in disclosing some details about his dealings with the taxman in the interests of transparency. 

Their revelations came days after Rishi Sunak ordered an independent probe into Mr Zahawi’s tax affairs, with the party chairman believed to have paid a multi-million pound settlement to HMRC last summer.

The Chancellor, who initially declined to say whether he had paid a penalty, reluctantly joined the Prime Minister in disclosing some details about his dealings with the taxman

Mr Hunt, who earlier claimed voters were not ‘remotely interested’ in the subject, said: ‘I don’t normally comment about my own tax records but I’m Chancellor, so for the record I have not paid an HMRC fine.’

His words came as another senior Tory urged Mr Zahawi to ‘do the right thing’ and stand down after it was reported that his wife’s company received £30million in unsecured loans from an unknown source. 

Sir Jake Berry, the Conservative chairman’s predecessor, conceded last night that Mr Zahawi should ‘step aside’ while the independent adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, carried out his probe. 

Their revelations came days after Rishi Sunak ordered an independent probe into Nadhim Zahawi’s (pictured) tax affairs

Sir Jake said it was ‘unsustainable’ for any frontbencher to stay in post during such a time, becoming the second Tory MP after Caroline Nokes to openly call for the minister to stand down. 

He told BBC’s Question Time: ‘The view I have put forward consistently in relation to all these sorts of issues is that the Government needs to find a mechanism for ministers and MPs who are under investigation in this way to step aside, to clear their name and then to come back into government if that is appropriate. 

‘For Nadhim that would be the right thing to do now. I do think it’s unsustainable for a minister to stay in post while this investigation is going on.’ 

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