As yet more revelations drop in regard to Rishi Sunak and his wife and as damning and unfair as they are, he’s hardly alone in using the privilege of his position in order to feather his own nest amongst politicians. Stephen Kinnock it has been revealed was ordinarily domiciled in Switzerland back in 2010, whilst living in Denmark with his wife, the then Danish Leader of the Opposition, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. He held non dom status whilst his wife challenged to lead her country, which, in 2011 she did! He joined in amongst the resignations from Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet as part of the Labour right’s pathetic chicken coup and so worked against a Corbyn led government as so many of that party did, despite it being what so many people around the country needed – his face will forever and deservedly be remembered for the look of shock on his face as the 2017 general election exit poll dropped. It all went horribly wrong didn’t it Stevie. He’s also proof that nepotism in parliament doesn’t just extend to employing family, being the son of a former Labour leader and frankly just as useless. Danish authorities questioned Kinnock’s tax arrangements when it was pointed out that he was ordinarily domiciled in Switzerland and accused him of avoiding paying Danish taxes. Just as is the case with the Sunak’s, it was proven Kinnock hadn’t done anything legally wrong, yet it doesn’t exactly feel right either. It might be legal, but its bloody amoral to avoid paying tax when ordinary folk have to just because you’re wealthy enough to engage in a tax avoidance scheme which is all non dom status really amounts to and the optics are terrible when you’re married to a state legislator! Yet again, the Tories and the Labour right proving they are one as bad as each other. Kinnock is of course, back in the Shadow cabinet now under Starmer. Tax avoidance cannot be acceptable in any form amongst our parliamentarians, when they decide tax rules for the rest of us. Rishi Sunak it now emerges held a US Green Card until last October when he surrendered it. To hold one, you’re a US citizen and pay your taxes in the US regardless of where your money was made. Sunak was de facto an American whilst an elected MP and later working as our Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was in charge of our economy here yet would’ve surely been paying his taxes to the IRS instead of here. Despite living at 11 Downing Street, one of the most British of British addresses you could possibly have, he was legally a US citizen. No doubt Bozo said it’d be OK. Its not just a problem for us, it’s a problem for the US too as this chap at a recent white house briefing pointed out:
Sunak’s name has now also cropped up in the tax avoidance haven of the Cayman Islands as a trust beneficiary. Just how far does the Chancellor’s immediate connections to tax avoidance go? How many more MP’s are doing this, how many more, or their spouses, have non dom status? How many more are actively working in the arena of tax avoidance? We really need to know because if they’re making rules here, but their loyalties lie with another nation, they cannot claim to be working in our interests. If they are legislating tax rules for us, but avoiding them themselves, that cannot be right. Let’s not forget about Starmer himself either and his desire once upon a time to work for Mishcon de Reya, a firm that advises clients in making what they call ‘tax efficiences’ whilst a shadow minister under Corbyn, only for Corbyn to step in and stop him. Let’s not forget Margaret Hodge who has received dividends from a family business that operated out of a tax haven. David Cameron and everyone else named in the Pandora papers, Theresa May’s husband Philip working for a hedge fund profiting from companies practicing tax avoidance. The many and varied ways politicians across the spectrum have benefited from tax avoidance practices or have sought to are sickening and wrong and make them all unfit to hold office. The 2019 Labour Manifesto pledging to scrap non dom status, this Sunak business wouldn’t even be a story now if Corbyn had become PM. Literally the best chance we had in a generation to change things, again ripped away from us by the lies and deceit of those with privilege and power from politics to the papers. I can’t imagine Starmer’s Labour, nor certainly the Tories doing a damn thing about it despite all this though and this is of course aside from all the donors paying for MP’s to back their interests and their way of thinking and indeed donations do come from other non doms and people with vested interests from other parts of the world. The Russian funding of the Tories, the Israeli influences in Labour. Would you knowingly vote for somebody to hold public office, to potentially be a minister running national affairs who’s loyalties were to another country? Parliamentarian tax affairs along with donations should be made public and non dom status for everyone, should be abolished. An investigation by Whitehall is now being launched into the Sunak’s tax affairs, whist Rishi himself bleats about wanting an investigation too – but into who leaked his wife’s tax affairs to the press, completely missing the point and helping to reinforce the belief that he’s only sorry they got found out, not that they’ve done what they’ve done. If you live here, you should bloody well pay your taxes here and do so properly like the rest of us have to.