Friday, June 07, 2013
Labour's love lost
Like many others this week I have been watching the two Eds begin the process of falling out of love with their activists as they position themselves for the General Election through a number of announcements, including embracing welfare reform and a general acceptance of Coalition Government spending plans.
It is as if their criticisms of the last three years had been all part of a dream and like Bobby Ewing, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls had woken up in the shower to a new reality.
Now, it seems that all their rhetoric about tax avoidance has been a sham too, as it emerges that a major Labour donor was helped to avoid tax of up to £1.5m through the party accepting a £1.65m donation in the form of shares rather than cash.
The Independent reports that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has pointed out to the Labour leader that these actions are “directly at odds” with his recent criticism of internet giant Google's tax arrangements.
Will Labour now pass the amount of tax that has been avoided to the tax man? I am not holding my breath.
It is as if their criticisms of the last three years had been all part of a dream and like Bobby Ewing, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls had woken up in the shower to a new reality.
Now, it seems that all their rhetoric about tax avoidance has been a sham too, as it emerges that a major Labour donor was helped to avoid tax of up to £1.5m through the party accepting a £1.65m donation in the form of shares rather than cash.
The Independent reports that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has pointed out to the Labour leader that these actions are “directly at odds” with his recent criticism of internet giant Google's tax arrangements.
Will Labour now pass the amount of tax that has been avoided to the tax man? I am not holding my breath.
