UK Politics

A senior Conservative MP has called for a review of non-dom tax rules in the wake of revelations about Rishi Sunak’s household finances.Tobias Ellwood, a top select committee chair and ex minister, said the current rules “are out of date” and “do need to be reviewed”.The Independent revealed this week that Akshata Murty, Mr Sunak’s multimillionaire wife, has acquired non-domiciled tax status despite living in Britain.The arrangement means she could have avoided a tax bill of around £4.4m before any tax liabilities overseas – in return for paying an annual £30,000 charge to the UK.Speaking on Friday morning Mr Ellwood said there was “nothing illegal” about the arrangement, but told Sky News”If there are bigger, more fundamental questions about the existence of the non-dom status, that is something for us as a country – perhaps and indeed Parliament – to debate.The chair of the Commons defence select committee added that the issue was distracting from the war in Ukraine, which he said should be the UK’s central focus.”The idea that we focus on this discussion about following the rules that actually exist at the moment, I think, is a distraction from what we need to be focusing on, which was the previous subject right now, of what Britain is going to do to help and lead other countries support Ukraine,” he said.Opposition parties last night joined forces to demand answers from the chancellor after it emerged Ms Murty pays no UK tax on her huge foreign earnings.Tax lawyers also dismissed Ms Murty’s claim that her non-dom status is a consequence of her Indian citizenship, pointing out that she has chosen to adopt it.Condemning what he said was “breathtaking hypocrisy”, Sir Keir Starmer called for answers about “what schemes she may have been using to reduce her own tax”, a demand echoed by the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party.Ministers earlier attempted a fightback, condemning what one called “malicious attacks” on a private citizen, while another accused Labour of believing that “wives are merely an extension of their husbands”.Mr Sunak broke his silence on Thursday night to accuse Labour of running a smear campaign against his family, adding: “To smear my wife to get at me is awful, right?”The chancellor told The Sun: “I appreciate that in the past British people were trying to use [non-dom status] to basically not pay any tax in the UK. I can see that from my inbox, right? That’s a very clear perception.“But that’s not the case here. She’s not a British citizen. She’s from another country. She’s from India. That’s where her family is… that’s where she, you know, ultimately will want to go and look after her parents as they get older.“She pays full UK tax on every penny that she earns here in the same way that she pays full international tax on every penny that she earns internationally, say, in India.”Earlier on Thursday, Boris Johnson ducked questions about the controversy, arguing: “I think it is very important in politics, if you possibly can, to try and keep people’s families out of it.” More

‘Keep families out of it’: Johnson dodges question on Sunak wife tax affairsChancellor Rishi Sunak has defended his wife, billionaire Akshata Murty, over her tax-reducing non-domiciled status after Labour demanded answers whether he himself benefitted from her status. Mr Sunak said his wife had done nothing wrong in choosing a financial arrangement that means she is not legally obliged to pay tax in Britain on foreign income.He has blamed Labour for the “awful” smears against his family, saying: “She hasn’t broken any rules”.This comes after the party demanded the Chancellor to answer 12 central questions about whether he personally benefited from Ms Murty’s tax arrangement. Ms Murty, daughter of the Indian businessman Narayana Murthy, is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Meanwhile, The Telegraph reported that unnamed allies of the Chancellor claimed the Prime Minister’s office was behind the leaks – an allegation No 10 and No 11 strongly denied.A No 10 spokeswoman told the PA news agency: “It is categorically untrue that No 10 is behind the briefings.”“The Prime Minister and Chancellor are united.”Show latest update

1649428530Lib Dems call for Whitehall investigation into Sunak and US green card claimsOur politics reporter Adam Forrest writes:The Liberal Democrats have called for the cabinet secretary to launch an investigation into chancellor Rishi Sunak after reports emerged that he previously held a US Green Card.Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has written to the cabinet secretary Simon Case – and the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests Lord Geidt – urging them to open an investigation into whether Sunak broke the ministerial code by failing to declare his residency in the US.Sir Ed Davey MP: “How could the man who is responsible for UK tax policy regard any permanent residency status for the United States as acceptable? This would be a huge conflict of interest – and a serious breach of the ministerial code.”“Rishi Sunak must come clean about his own financial arrangements and whether he has ever held a Green Card. If he will not, then we need an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this.”Sam Hancock8 April 2022 15:351649428405What are India’s non-dom tax rules and why might Sunak’s wife benefit from them?British chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing questions after The Independent revealed that his wife, Akshata Murthy, pays no tax in the UK on her vast foreign earnings, potentially saving her millions of pounds.In a statement on Thursday, the chancellor defended his family’s financial affairs and hit out at what he called “smears” directed at his family, adding that scrutiny of his wife was unfair because she is a “private citizen”.To understand Ms Murthy’s tax liability in India, experts said that is important to first clarify whether she is a resident or non-resident taxpayer in the country, writes Sravasti Dasgupta.Sam Hancock8 April 2022 15:331649426775Watch: Starmer says Sunak must ‘come clean’ on family tax affairsKeir Starmer says Rishi Sunak must ‘come clean’ on family tax affairsSam Hancock8 April 2022 15:061649426559Dame Cressida warns against ‘politicisation of policing’ in final days as commissionerOutgoing Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick has warned against the “politicisation of policing”, saying this is “a threat not just to policing but to trust in the whole criminal justice system”.She left Scotland Yard for the final time this morning – though her official end of employment date with the Met is 24 April – and was applauded by officers as she walked out.Sky’s Scott Beasley reports:In a “letter to London”, which she wrote to mark the end of her post, Dame Cressida said: “Of course as I look back there is more I wish we had achieved. We hear the criticism, know not everyone has confidence in us to provide a good service when they need us, and have seen among us those whose horrific actions have let you all, and us, down so terribly.“Each one drives us to get better, to root out those who don’t uphold our standards and don’t deserve to wear our uniform. To improve our response so all our communities feel protected by us.“We are listening and acting on what you tell us so we can change for the better. Just this week we launched our violence against women and girls plan, shaped by the views of hundreds of Londoners.“The current politicisation of policing is a threat not just to policing but to trust in the whole criminal justice system. Operational independence from local and central government is crucial for an effective democracy and is a model respected around the world. We must all treasure and protect it.”Sam Hancock8 April 2022 15:021649425790Sunak: Wife’s non-dom tax status ‘not unusual’, claims ministerChancellor Rishi Sunak and his allies have hit out at “unpleasant smears” as he came under scrutiny over his wife’s tax-reducing non-domiciled status, while No 10 denied being behind the leaks.Ms Murty, who married the chancellor in 2009, has confirmed she paid £30,000 to hold non-dom status after The Independent revealed the arrangement earlier this week.Mr Sunak has blamed Labour for the tax details emerging, but his allies have told newspapers that they suspect No 10 of trying to undermine the chancellor – who has been seen as a favourite to succeed Boris Johnson in any leadership challenge. A No 10 spokeswoman denied the PM’s office was sharing any details.Adam Forrest has more:Sam Hancock8 April 2022 14:491649425214Germany’s Scholz arrives at No 10 for talks on Ukraine with PMGerman chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived at Downing Street within the last half an hour for talks with Boris Johnson on reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas following the attack on Ukraine.The UK prime minister greeted Mr Scholz at the door of No 10 at 2.13pm on Friday.Mr Scholz smiled and nodded at reporters gathered outside before shaking hands with Mr Johnson.They are set to hold a press conference later this afternoon, after talks behind closed doors. More

Rishi Sunak has broken his silence on his wife’s tax affairs, insisting she “hasn’t broken any laws” after The Independent revealed she has continued to use non-dom status since he became chancellor.The chancellor faced accusations of “breathtaking hypocrisy” and cross-party demands to answer “very serious questions” over his family’s financial affairs after it emerged that his wife Akshata Murty pays no tax in the UK on her vast foreign earnings, potentially saving her millions of pounds.Addressing the matter on Thursday night, Mr Sunak hit out at what he called “smears” directed at his family, saying that scrutiny of his wife was unfair because she is a “private citizen”.“It’s unpleasant, especially when she hasn’t done anything wrong,” the chancellor told The Sun. “She hasn’t broken any rules. She’s followed the letter of the law. And if she was living here and didn’t just happen to be married to me this obviously would not be at all relevant.”Mr Sunak said that while “in the past British people were trying to use [non-dom status] to basically not pay any tax in the UK”, that was “not the case here”.“What it comes down to is, my wife was born in India, raised in India,” he added. “Her family home is in India, she obviously has a very close connection. She has investments and a career independent of me. She had this well before we met, before she moved to this country.“It wouldn’t be reasonable or fair to ask her to sever ties with her country because she happens to be married to me. She loves her country. Like I love mine, I would never dream of giving up my British citizenship. And I imagine most people wouldn’t.”His comments echo a statement issued by a spokesperson for Ms Murty on Wednesday – the day Mr Sunak’s national insurance hike came into effect – claiming that she had to use non-dom status because of her Indian citizenship.“India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously,” the statement said. “So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”But tax lawyers dismissed the suggestion that Ms Murty’s non-dom status is a consequence of her Indian citizenship, saying that people can choose whether they are non-domiciled for tax purposes.“It’s just not how it works. You have to tick a box on your tax return, claiming what’s called the remittance basis. An actual box. So that’s a choice that she made,” Dan Neidle, a senior tax lawyer, said.While Boris Johnson dodged a question on Thursday about the revelations, Sir Keir Starmer hit out at Mr Sunak for having “imposed tax rise after tax rise on working people” and saying “time and again there’s no alternative”.“If it now transpires that his wife has used schemes to reduce her own tax then that’s breathtaking hypocrisy and is more evidence of just how out of touch this chancellor is, and I think he’s got very, very serious questions to answer in relation to these schemes,” the Labour leader said.His comments came as Labour sent 12 questions to Mr Sunak, demanding to know whether the chancellor has gained personally from Ms Murty’s tax arrangements.Asked by The Sun if he believed his family were victims of a Labour smear campaign, Mr Sunak replied that he did, saying: “To smear my wife to get at me is awful, right?”Ms Murty is listed on LinkedIn as being director of capital at private equity firm Catamaran Ventures, gym chain Digme Fitness and gentlemen’s outfitters New & Lingwood.She is also reported to hold a 0.91 per cent stake in the tech giant Infosys, which was founded by her father, Narayana Murty. More

A former London mayoral campaign manager has reportedly been put forward as a local election candidate by the Conservatives despite him being pictured at a lockdown-breaching party in December 2020. Ben Mallet has been put forward by a local Conservative group as its hopeful for this year’s borough council and local authority elections being held across the UK on 5 May, according to Guido Fawkes. His name was spotted on a declaration form listing candidates for the Kingston-upon-Thames ward, in southwest London, a copy of which was shared on the right-wing political blog. It also published an image appearing to show Mr Mallet holding a campaign flyer with his own name on it. Mr Mallet, ex-London mayoral campaign manager for Tory hopeful Shaun Bailey, was part of a group that made headlines at the end of last year when a photo surfaced of 24 people at a lockdown-breaching party in the Westminster-based Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ). The event, said to have been organised by the team Mr Mallet led, took place on 14 December 2020 when London was in tight Tier 2 restrictions.In the extraordinary image, which went viral after it was leaked to the Daily Mirror, Mr Mallet can be seen lying on the ground in front of the group, holding a glass of wine and wearing braces. So damaging was the image that Mr Bailey dramatically resigned as chair of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee. He later also stepped down as chair of the Assembly’s economy committee.While furore around the Partygate scandal – in which it was discovered that more than 10 potentially illegal parties had been thrown by Downing Street and Whitehall staff – largely calmed down as the war in Ukraine kicked off, Boris Johnson has been back under the spotlight in recent weeks due to the ongoing police investigation. The Metropolitan Police announced at the end of last month it was issuing its first batch of fines for Covid-related offences, but declined to name the individuals involved or the size of the fines, which ranged between £100 and £10,000 in the period covered.They were the first penalties to be imposed in relation to a series of 12 gatherings in 2020 and 2021 and the first police confirmation that coronavirus laws were in fact broken.Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner called on Mr Johnson to resign over the breaches, saying: “The buck stops with the prime minister.”Top Tory figures such as Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg have come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, after claiming the public no longer care about the fallout from Partygate. Mr Rees-Mogg, the former Commons leader, dismissed the row as “fluff” – but was slapped down by other MPs, including Conservatives.The news that Mr Mallet has secured a place as the Kingston Conservatives’ candidate comes just two days after health secretary Sajid Javid refused to answer questions on whether the prime minister presided “over widespread criminality” during lockdown – an allegation made by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.“When you ask me about matters of the law this is rightly in a democracy… it is a matter for the independent police,” he told Sky News in relation to presenter Kay Burley’s line of questioning.The Independent has contacted CCHQ for comment on Mr Mallet’s candidacy in the local elections. More

Pressure is growing on Rishi Sunak and his wife to come clean on details of their tax affairs after The Independent revealed she uses the controversial tax-avoiding non-dom status.Opposition parties joined forces to demand answers from the chancellor after it emerged Akshata Murty pays no UK tax on her huge foreign earnings, which is believed to save her many millions of pounds.Tax lawyers also dismissed Ms Murty’s claim that her non-dom status is a consequence of her Indian citizenship, pointing out that she has chosen to adopt it.Condemning what he said was “breathtaking hypocrisy”, Sir Keir Starmer called for answers about “what schemes she may have been using to reduce her own tax”, a demand echoed by the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party.Labour sent 12 detailed questions to Mr Sunak, demanding he come clean about how much tax his wife has avoided – and whether the chancellor has gained personally.Ministers earlier attempted a fightback, condemning what one called “malicious attacks” on a private citizen, while another accused Labour of believing that “wives are merely an extension of their husbands”.Mr Sunak broke his silence on Thursday night to accuse Labour of running a smear campaign against his family, adding: “To smear my wife to get at me is awful, right?”The chancellor told The Sun: “I appreciate that in the past British people were trying to use [non-dom status] to basically not pay any tax in the UK. I can see that from my inbox, right? That’s a very clear perception.“But that’s not the case here. She’s not a British citizen. She’s from another country. She’s from India. That’s where her family is… that’s where she, you know, ultimately will want to go and look after her parents as they get older.“She pays full UK tax on every penny that she earns here in the same way that she pays full international tax on every penny that she earns internationally, say, in India.”Earlier on Thursday, Boris Johnson ducked questions about the controversy, arguing: “I think it is very important in politics, if you possibly can, to try and keep people’s families out of it.”In Labour’s letter to Mr Sunak, the chancellor was urged to open up about whether Ms Murty uses the “remittance basis” to claim non-dom status and avoid UK tax on foreign income, as experts have suggested. This would confirm her status to be an “active choice”, Labour said. In addition, the party has demanded to know whether she pays tax in India, or in a tax haven in order to minimise her bills.The chancellor was also asked to set out what measures are in place to “ensure [he is] not involved in Treasury discussions around potential amendments to the non-domicile status rules”.“As chancellor it is crucial you both follow the rules and lead by example,” said the letter, which was written by James Murray, a Labour Treasury spokesperson.Christine Jardine, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, said of Mr Sunak: “It would be a scandal if his household were to have benefited from overseas tax havens.”And Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, said: “There are a whole host of questions the chancellor must now answer, including exactly how much he and his family have benefited.”Ms Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire, holds investments in a range of companies, including a 0.93 stake in the tech firm Infosys, which is thought to have paid dividends of around £11.6m in the past year.As a non-dom, she could have avoided a tax bill of around £4.4m before any tax liabilities overseas – in return for paying an annual £30,000 charge in this country.Ms Murty’s spokesperson has not disputed that she has opted for the “remittance basis”, acknowledging that she pays only foreign tax on her foreign earnings. The spokesperson has also declined to disclose whether she is domiciled for tax purposes in India or takes advantage of tax havens.The Treasury said Mr Sunak had declared his wife’s tax status to the Cabinet Office when he became a minister in 2018, and to his current department when he joined it, initially as chief secretary, a year later.Two senior Treasury officials, along with an additional official who often works with the department, said that they had not been informed of the chancellor’s potential conflict of interest arising from his immediate family’s use of non-dom tax status.They said they believed it was directly relevant to policy currently being developed around how best to attract foreign talent to the UK, and in other areas of international tax. They added that it is also relevant to policy for international trade, in regard to tax advice being part of professional and financial services.One senior official said that, in their view, “there was good reason to share this information more widely to leaders of relevant policy teams”.A second added that they felt “uncomfortable about the implications” of not having been made aware of the use of non-dom status by the chancellor’s wife.A Treasury spokesperson said: “The chancellor provided a full list of all relevant interests when he first became a minister in 2018, as required by the ministerial code. The independent adviser on ministers’ interests has confirmed that they are completely satisfied with the steps the chancellor has taken to meet the requirements of the code.” More

Dozens of false statements have been made in parliament by Boris Johnson and his ministers over the past two years amid a “crisis of honesty”, it can be revealed.The prime minister has not lodged any corrections to the official House of Commons record, despite being reprimanded by the statistics watchdog and having his incorrect statements pointed out by opposition MPs and fact-checkers.Labour has accused the government of disrespecting the public with a “litany of lies and falsehoods”, while the Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve said the figures suggested “a disregard both for good governance and truth”.The 17 false statements attributed to Mr Johnson following an investigation by The Independent, working with Full Fact, include claims regarding Downing Street parties, refugees, Covid boosters, crime rates, and the economy.They are among at least 27 uncorrected false statements made by ministers to parliament since the December 2019 general election.Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, said the prime minister was “degrading his office”.“This litany of lies and falsehoods show a total lack of respect for the public from this Conservative government and its ministers,” she told The Independent.“The ministerial code is absolutely clear that mistakes should be corrected as soon as possible, and purposely misleading parliament should mean resignation.“But ministers are instead taking their lead from the prime minister himself, who has no issue with repeating mistruths and conspiracy theories.”Calls are mounting for a new system to ensure that false statements can be challenged in parliament without MPs falling foul of a rule that forbids them from accusing one another of lying.Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “Every time Mr Johnson and his ministers have misled parliament is just another blow to people’s trust in his sinking ship of a government – those who mislead the public must be held accountable.“It’s clear that Mr Johnson has already lost the trust of the nation. Now the very least we should do is be able to hold his Trumpian behaviour to account.”He said there needs to be “serious action to stop ministers running roughshod over the truth”, and called for MPs to be allowed to point out where the prime minister has made “misleading statements”, without the risk of being thrown out of the Commons.Former Tory minister says PM’s Savile slur ‘a mistake’In February, Mr Johnson lodged his first ever “clarification” under a separate process involving a written statement, after claiming that Roman Abramovich was “facing sanctions” as part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs at a point where had had not been penalised.Among the false statements made by the prime minister was his 31 January claim that Sir Keir Starmer had “spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”, referring to the Labour leader’s previous role as director of public prosecutions.The slur, which was later repeated by protesters who mobbed the Labour leader in Westminster, has not been retracted by Mr Johnson despite the fact that Sir Keir did not make the decision on Savile.During the same parliamentary debate on 31 January, the prime minister claimed that the government had “cut crime by 14 per cent”.He was reprimanded by Sir David Norgrove, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, who said the figure was “true only if fraud and computer misuse are excluded”, while the crime rate including these categories had increased by 14 per cent.Other ministers who have made false statements in parliament during the same period include Matt Hancock in his time as health secretary, home secretary Priti Patel, attorney general Suella Braverman, and culture secretary Nadine Dorries.Dominic Grieve, a former Conservative MP who served as attorney general between 2010 and 2014, said: “The long list of untrue statements to parliament, and the failure to correct them as required both by the rules of the Commons and the ministerial code, should be of great concern to all who believe in the need for integrity from government. It marks a major departure from prior practice and suggests a disregard both for good governance and truth.”Calls are mounting for changes that would force ministers to correct false statements – a process that currently relies on the voluntary submission of letters to the Hansard parliamentary report.In the same period since the 2019 election, 75 ministerial corrections have been recorded by Hansard – but none from the prime minister.Most were minor factual errors, such as defence secretary Ben Wallace getting the name of a missile wrong, and transport secretary Grant Shapps saying 11 rather than 10 climate activists had been jailed after blocking roads.Will Moy, chief executive of the fact-checking group Full Fact, said it was “only human” for MPs to make mistakes while responding off the cuff during parliamentary debates.“The problem isn’t people making honest mistakes, it’s people making mistakes and not being willing to correct them – that isn’t honest behaviour,” he told The Independent.“It is ridiculous that you have a system where the speaker can throw an MP out of the House of Commons for accusing somebody of lying, but an MP who is lying cannot be sanctioned in any way.“The only MPs who can correct the record are government ministers, and there’s no mechanism to make them do that when they don’t want to.”Mr Moy labelled the situation a “crisis of honesty”, adding: “The persistent failure of the prime minister and other ministers to correct the record when they are clearly required to do so under parliamentary rules creates a crisis not just of their own behaviour, but of parliamentary accountability.”He said that in governments prior to the 2019 election, it was common for senior politicians to “quietly drop” false claims, even if they refused to correct the record.“In this case we’re seeing senior government ministers, and the prime minister, repeating claims that are not true, and that they have had every chance to get right, up to and including their own regulator of statistics telling them what they’re saying is not true,” he added. “That is both new and shocking.”A government spokesperson said: “The government takes seriously its duties to ensure parliamentary accountability and scrutiny by an independent free press.” More