Uncovering the Truth: An Examination of Tax Affairs and Legal Battles

You were found to have breached the ministerial code by failing to be transparent over tax affairs. You later paid back, I think, nearly £5 million of, um. Of unpaid taxes. At the time, Dan Needle, who is a tax expert, was asking questions about the unpaid sums of money to the Treasury. You tried to restrict him with intimidating warnings. A slap order. This is a strategic lawsuit against a public participation. Whose idea was that slap order? Did that come from you? I was basically trying to defend myself against allegations that. That were wrong. He was, um, conflating tax evasion, um, and, um, other investigations that were not true. Dan Needle says that’s factually false. He never once said that you were guilty of tax evasion, which he knows is a criminal offence. And he didn’t accuse you of a blind to conceal tax evasion and. And setting up offshore structures. He didn’t say that? Well, that’s. That’s what he said. I was. That’s what it felt to me that you. You can’t say it felt that to you. Either he said it or he didn’t say it. And he’s saying he didn’t say that. I can go back and. And. And check. No, I mean, he’s tweets. He’s questioned what you’ve written in the book because he thinks it’s potentially libelous. So just clarify. Did you. Did you order that slap order? I didn’t order any. Anything other than to say to my lawyer. Look, if Daniel Wants to engage with us constructively. We can go through all his questions. So the lawyer. I did that off his own back. No, no, no. I said to my lawyer, I want you to, um, write to Dan Needle and to say, look, I can’t answer your questions on Twitter. Um, we need to have a proper, um, discussion. And I’m very happy to have that discussion with you. Daniel says they ordered me to retract my claim that Zahawi had lied to cover up the tax avoidance, which was true, and said if I even mentioned their threat to anyone, it would be a serious matter. The attempt to silence me caused widespread outrage and has LED to his lawyer being prosecuted before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Did that slap order come from you? Well, first of all, my solicitor is going through that tribunal at the moment. It would be wrong for me to comment on that. I think that’s completely wrong. There was no slap order coming from me. I asked my solicitor. He got sent a letter that was threatening to engage. No, I don’t. I don’t believe it was friendly. I was. I think it was disruptive. If he says he was silenced and told he wasn’t allowed to mention what he’d said, clearly he was not silenced, Emily, because it’s obvious he’s not silent because he. Continue. This is now. This is now. And before this was now. But even. Even now. And Before, he was. He was never. He was never, ever silenced. Because he. He published all the letters that we sent to him. And you did end up paying back nearly £5 million to the Treasury in tax. Hmm. Have you apologized to him? I’ve apologized publicly. No, because I don’t need to apologize to. To Dan Needle. Um. He made this public to the British people. No, hold a second. First of all, there were. There were lots of articles written when I. When I decided to stand for the leadership, um, about my tax affairs. Um, my mistake that I made was that I was not specific about the settlement and the fine.