LABOUR MP Barry Gardiner has called for MPs to be required to publish their tax returns.
His call came in a debate on GB News following Prime Minister Questions in the House of Commons.
Mr Gardiner said: “I just think it would make it a lot simpler if all members of Parliament had to be transparent with their tax returns…”
But his fellow MP, Conservative Alec Shelbrooke interrupted him and said: “That’s wrong. And I think that’s fundamentally unfair.
“It’s fundamentally unfair because it gets looked at in a different prism, you will drive people out of Parliament and just look at…the Westminster files. They have conflated things to say bribery that all the donations you have have gone around as they have with me.
“It’s an irresponsible way forward and you will drive a lot of people out,” he said.
Mr Gardiner countered, during GB News Live with Mark Longhurst: “We are robust enough to fight back and say ‘no, that’s not the case’.
“And we can explain and we should be able to do that with our tax affairs as well.”
On the Zawahi tax affair, Mr Gardiner said the Prime Minister’s response during PMQs indicated that Mr Zahawi was toast.
“I think the significant thing was this: the Prime Minister constantly referred to Nadhim Zahawi not as his ‘right honourable friend’, but as ‘the minister without portfolio’.
“The fact that he did that and said I’m following due process, he was cauterising himself from the problem, that means the Zahawi has been cut adrift and he will go.”
Mr Shelbrooke responded: “The Prime Minister has now put himself in the position of – if it is found that he has to go, the Prime Minister has no choice but to do a sacking. He can’t accept a resignation.
“He’s now put himself in a position where he has to seem to be in charge, otherwise that will reflect badly on the Prime Minister.
“There is quite a high stakes couple of weeks coming up as to how this pans out.`’
