23 January 2023 , 13:24
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It has come to a pretty pass when a Cabinet minister justifies his wrongdoing by admitting he was "careless, but not deliberate".
Yet that's what Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi has done, after being caught out by the taxman on about £3.7m that disappeared, without being taxed, from the sale of shares into a Gibraltar-based family trust.
The quality of "not giving sufficient attention or thought to avoiding harm or errors" is usually best avoided by those making big decisions on our behalf, rather than relied upon as an excuse.
If it doesn't wash when a tearful 5-year-old tells you they tripped and fell into the biscuit tin, then it ain't going to work when a multi-millionaire with accountants up to his ears says: "What millions? I have no millions. Oh, THOSE millions. Whoopsy!"
We all expected so much better from a man who once charged us to heat his stables (PA)