Nadhim Zahawi has been sacked as Tory party chairman after paying a penalty to resolve a multimillion-pound tax dispute while he was chancellor.
In a letter to Mr Zahawi published on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it is “clear that there has been a serious breach of the Ministerial Code”.
Mr Zahawi had faced pressure in recent days to quit as questions swirled about his finances even after he released a statement to “clear up some of the confusion”.
He admitted he paid what HM Revenue & Customs said “was due” after it “disagreed about the exact allocation” of shares in the YouGov polling company he co-founded, an error he said was “careless” not deliberate.
He did not disclose the size of the settlement – reported to be an estimated £4.8m including a 30% penalty – or whether he paid a fine.
Mr Sunak had resisted earlier calls from opposition parties to sack Mr Zahawi and instead asked his new ethics adviser to assess whether the HMRC settlement amounted to a breach of the ministerial code.
Labour, the Lib Dems and a former Tory minister had publicly called for him to go.
Caroline Nokes said there were “too many unanswered questions” over the former chancellor’s actions and that he was “leading too many front pages”.