Zahawi’s Careless Tax Error Is Sunak's Problem

British political scandals, at least in the Conservative era, seem to have a White Lotus quality that is both painful to watch and impossible to ignore. A niggling revelation unsettles the smooth veneer. Then the dial of awkwardness gets turned up until it becomes something hideous.

The tax travails of Nadhim Zahawi have that familiar feel. Zahawi apologized last summer for mistakenly using taxpayer money to heat his horse stables, but that seemed innocent enough. After all, anyone might fail to notice that energy to their second home and their horse stables were on the same bill. And when as a candidate for Tory leader he denied repeatedly that there was anything to see in his tax affairs, people could have taken him at his word; Prime Minister Rishi Sunak clearly did in appointing him Conservative Party chairman. Now Zahawi’s tax affairs are Sunak’s problem.