PM doubles down when attacked for handling Zahawi and Raab controversies
This week marks Rishi Sunak’s 100 days as prime minister, as well as the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade.
And on a historic day in more ways than one, the prime minister was immediately attacked for his promise to restore trust and decorum in politics.
Asked if Sunak was aware that Nadhim Zahawi was under investigation over his tax affairs before appointing him to his cabinet, Sir Keir Starmer refused to believe that Sunak was unaware of the concerns surrounding the former Tory party chairman.
Listing various reports in different newspapers about Mr Zahawi, Sir Keir argued: “Anyone who picked up a newspaper in July last year would have known about it.”
He stood firm in his criticism that Sunak could not have ignored concerns about his former president unless he was “too indifferent to ask questions” about the reports or his officials withheld the information from the prime minister.
Turning things around, Sunak brought up allegations by Labor MP Rosie Duffield that being in Labor is like being in an abusive relationship.
Sunak knows how painful this is for the opposition leader, as behind closed doors Labor is anything but united on the issue of gender self-identification and the Scottish gender recognition bill.
Mr Sunak claimed that if Sir Keir could not be trusted to stand up for the women of his party, he could not be trusted to stand up for the people in Britain either.
But Sir Keir ignored the accusation and was relentless in his attack that Sunak is too weak to impose discipline and decorum within his superior team.
Attacks aside, Mr. Sunak doubled down on his defense that he has followed due process and said that the matters relating to Mr. Zahawi and Mr. Raab be properly and professionally investigated.
Comparing the Prime Minister to Boris Johnson, Sir Keir accused Sunak of shirking responsibility, but suggested that Johnson was less of a hypocrite, as he “didn’t go around pretending he was a paragon of integrity and responsibility”.
Given that Sunak claims he resigned due to Johnson’s conduct and handling of successive scandals, this will be especially frustrating as Sunak may feel he is being doubly punished for trying to appear more honest than his predecessor.
