BBC’s Fiona Bruce accused of defending Nadhim Zahawi

On BBC’s Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce has come under fire as she has been accused of defending Nadhim Zahawi.

Zahawi has been under extreme pressure as details of his tax affairs have hit the headlines.

Nadhim Zahawi has not made an “innocent error” in his tax affairs it has been claimed. The head of HM Revenue and Customs suggested that Zahawi has not made an ‘innocent error’ raising fresh questions about the cabinet minister’s fine.

James Harra, HMRC’s chief executive, told a cross-party group of MPs on Thursday that “there are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs” – making clear that his organisation did not fine those deemed to have taken “reasonable care”.

Now Nadhim Zahawi, is under pressure to reveal the source of about £30m of unsecured loans made to his wife’s UK property company, reports The Guardian.

Bruce

Things got rather heated on BBC Question Time when Fiona Bruce got into a debate with a guest about the former chancellor’s taxes.

Political commentator Konstantin Kisin and the presenter were discussing Nadhim’s HMRC penalty.

“The boss of HMRC said today that innocent people don’t pay penalties,” Mr Kisin said.

Fiona Bruce said he actually said that there are “no penalties for innocent errors,” to which he reiterated that Nadhim Zahawi still paid a penalty.

Watch

https://twitter.com/MarinaPurkiss/status/1618969218384551937

However, Kisin took to Twitter to defend Bruce.

1.

FFS, there's a clip going around which apparently proves that Fiona Bruce is a Tory stooge because she interrupted me to clarify the statement about Nadhim Zahawi when it's quite obvious she was super concerned about breaking this country's (somewhat excessive) defamation laws.

— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) January 27, 2023

2.

Not everything is about this tribal stupidity. If this was a Labour politician she was making sure was not defamed she would have been just as (overly) careful. That's her job and she does it well.

— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) January 27, 2023

3.

Here's the clip btw:https://t.co/x9sBZskSDd

— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) January 27, 2023

Even after that people were not convinced…

1.

She is a Tory stooge.

— Tom Hardy (@stonemasonjude) January 27, 2023

2.

Is she always that impartial?🤔

— Peter William Garner (@PeterWilliamGa4) January 27, 2023

3.

It's not this one clip that proves that, it's every episode.

— Dave Hampson (@diablik_uk) January 27, 2023

4.

It's not this one clip that proves that, it's every episode.

— Dave Hampson (@diablik_uk) January 27, 2023

5.

Fiona long ago proved she is a Tory Stooge.

— Taylor (@witterton) January 27, 2023

Related: Watch: Anger as Fiona Bruce seems unnerved that QT audience contains NHS staff