Sunak’s slipping standards?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rishi Sunak promised to lead a government of integrity, but how big a problem will Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs and Boris Johnson’s loan arrangements turn out to be for the prime minister? Tortoise’s Cat Neilan joins the IfG podcast team to take a closer look at the latest standards crisis. Talking of crises, will the government’s emergency measures help the NHS through its difficult winter? A new IfG report is far from convinced – its author drops in on the podcast. And how does a new minister know what to do on day 1 in the job? What do civil servants need to know about working in government? And how should people on the outside approach working with government? The new IfG Academy has the answers. Hannah White presents. With Tim Durrant and Stuart Hoddinott. Produced by Candice McKenzie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.3	I'm Hannah White. The government's approach to standards and ethics is making headlines.
0:18.9	Rules might be being broken and we're being told
0:21.3	to wait for an inquiry to run its course. And Boris Johnson is involved, probably. It's also
0:27.3	2022, isn't it? But it's also what's happening right now. Yes, Rishi-Soonak's pledge to lead a government
0:33.6	of integrity is under pressure. That didn't take long, but is it his fault or the
0:38.7	unfortunate legacy of the Johnson era? We'll explore what's going on and where it might lead.
0:44.0	If it wasn't for the latest standards crisis, more people would probably be talking about the NHS crisis,
0:49.6	because it hasn't gone away, despite the Prime Minister setting out a series of emergency support measures.
0:54.9	But will they work? A new IFG paper is not convinced. We'll be talking to its author.
1:01.3	And then to end, we'll take a look at a question that has tripped up plenty of politicians.
1:05.8	What does a new government minister need to know when they start the job. Well, the IFG has the answer,
1:11.1	well, lots of them, in fact, as we'll reveal all later. Joining me throughout is IFG Associate Director
1:17.2	Tim Durant, who leads our work on ministers. Hi, Tim. Hi, Hannah. It's great to be here. And I am
1:21.8	delighted to be joined by Kat Neelan, who is political editor at Tortus. Hi Kat, how are you doing? Hi, Hannah. Yes. Thank you very much for having me.
1:29.1	So, here we go again. Standards, ethics, the rules, all back in the news.
1:33.7	Boris Johnson's involved, the government's independent advisor is two. It's all rather familiar,
1:38.5	isn't it? But for Rishi-Soonak, this is new and potentially dangerous territory.
1:43.0	One row involves Nadine Zahari, the Conservative Party chairman and his tax affairs. The other involves Boris Johnson, alone and the chairman of the BBC. So, Tim, we're recording at lunchtime on Thursday. Can you give us a quick summary of where we're at? So I can do my best. On the Zahawai case, as you mentioned, Hano, it's all about his
2:02.6	tax return and his tax affairs. This first bubbled up when he was Chancellor last year at the
2:08.2	tail end of Boris Johnson's government. It's emerged that he has paid a penalty to HMRC because of
2:13.9	problems in his original tax payment. Last week, the Prime Minister said that he thought the issue had been addressed in full,
	...

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