Irish Examiner view: Can the last one out turn the lights off?
Former British chancellor, then party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, is the latest Tory to walk the plank.
Another day and another Tory bigwig departs. With his team doing a passable imitation of Joseph Haydn’s ‘Symphony No. 45’ in F#minor, where every musician stops playing and leaves the stage one by one, Rishi Sunak may soon be standing alone with just his first violin.
Inevitably the former chancellor, then party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi has had to pack his bags, however reluctantly. What we learn from Downing Street’s ethics adviser is that there were seven occasions when the minister ignored opportunities to be candid about his tax affairs.
Sunak might hope that this is the last internal scandal to disturb him.
Unfortunately, his deputy, Dominic Raab, faces a damaging investigation into a series of complaints about bullying.
The inquiry into the pandemic is revealing an embarrassing litany of mismanagement and gross waste while the next phase of the Grenfell inquiry will conclude that laissez-faire government building regulations contributed to the death of 72 tenants. For conservative ministers it is becoming a case of will the last one to leave please turn the lights out.
