Tax is good and it's galling Zahawi didn’t pay it

Christians are called to act justly, look after the vulnerable and seek the good of the community. In a modern society one of the key ways this is achieved is through taxation, says Sarah Edwards. Nadhim Zahawi’s “careless” failure to pay what he owes is yet another example of the double standards employed by those in power

Nadhim Zahawi’s sacking as chairman of the Conservative Party for a “serious breach of the ministerial code” this weekend, reminds us of the expectations we place upon our leaders to behave in a certain way. As Christians, we draw on a long tradition of ethical guidance to shape the conduct of those who lead us.

Christian teaching is relevant to the specifics of this case as well as the generalities. Zahawi is understood to have paid a £1 million penalty to the HMRC tax authority as part of a larger settlement of £5 million, after tax errors he insists were “careless” rather than deliberate. While it is his failure to be transparent about the investigation over more than a year that has proved his undoing, his tax affairs highlight another moral issue.