Defiant to the last, Nadhim Zahawi lacks contrition

As “careless” as he was about his tax affairs – that is the official description given to him by HMRC, and it was not meant as a compliment – Nadhim Zahawi has also exercised some licence in the resignation letter he sent to the prime minister.

One serious omission in his response to his sacking is any sense of contrition. Not, as far as can be judged, a man often overwhelmed by self-doubt, Mr Zahawi nowhere acknowledges the damage he has inflicted on his country, his party, and the government through his negligence and his subsequent attempt to bluster and obfuscate his way out of trouble. No apologies, no regrets, it seems.

He has previously acknowledged, albeit after considerable delay and resistance, the fact of his having settled a £5m tax bill, which included a punitive penalty of about £1m. But he does not see fit to mention this, or indeed the verdict of the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, who found that he had “fallen below the high standards” expected of him.

Nor does Mr Zahawi seem to want to fade away in the coming months. Ominously, he says that Rishi Sunak “can be assured of my support from the backbenches in the coming years”. That sounds rather more like a threat than a promise, given that Mr Zahawi’s presence is a net negative for a government struggling with an image problem.

The most dignified thing now would be for Mr Zahawi to resign his seat at Stratford-upon-Avon and devote himself to rehabilitating his reputation (just as one of his predecessors in the constituency, John Profumo, once did, and with some success). Perhaps Mr Zahawi dreams of a comeback; if so, he – and his constituency association – should be swiftly disabused of the notion. He should go quietly.

Such good grace is not the Zahawi way. Most egregiously, Mr Zahawi had a swipe at the press. Yet were it not for the constant pressure of press attention, none of Mr Zahawi’s serious breaches of the ministerial code would ever have come to light, and he would have been able to look forward to many more years at the top of government, at the least. Indeed, at a stretch, Mr Zahawi might have emerged as prime minister during the abject chaos that engulfed the government last year – his pitch was eerily similar to that of Liz Truss, though the plea for tax cuts had added irony in his case.

Let us not forget, either, that when The Independent broke the story that he was being investigated by HMRC, Mr Zahawi dismissed the report as “smears” and threatened to sue both the journalists and tax expert Dan Neidle, just for their audacity in telling the truth about him. The intimidation was real and intended, and may have had a chilling effect on those reporting the scandal – though the truth came out in the end.

Mr Zahawi leaves behind some intriguing questions. Sir Laurie’s brief report – presented without backing evidence – suggests that successive prime ministers did not know about Mr Zahawi’s tax issues.

If it wasn’t a strange instance of “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, then one wonders why Boris Johnson, Ms Truss and Mr Sunak didn’t ask their officials to make some enquiries about the various serious allegations levelled at Mr Zahawi – from The Independent’s stories last July about the investigation by the National Crime Agency (though nothing came of that), through the HMRC story, and up to and including the revelation that he was blocked from receiving a knighthood last winter. Not to mention the size of the HMRC penalty, which was revealed more recently.

Does no one in Westminster and Whitehall gossip these days? Was there no informal intelligence? Did Mr Johnson, Ms Truss or Mr Sunak ever confront their colleague? If so, what did he tell them?

There have been persistent suggestions from within the government that the Cabinet Office and successive prime ministers did in fact know more than they have let on. These issues are not yet settled.

Though he may find it difficult to accept, Mr Zahawi has only himself to blame for his fall from grace. His mistakes and errors of judgement were compounded by his bullying attempts at concealment, and are now further exacerbated by his attempt to smear the media for doing their job. Careless, indeed.