UK Politics Thread (Part 1)

If the Chancellor can’t get his wife to pay the tax she should then he’s unfit for office.

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Absolutely.
Why is it even a debate?

But it’s not fair for a politician’s spouse to be attacked!

Think it’s fair if they’re not obeying the rules that their spouses are supposed to be making and enforcing…

Going to get very messy. If you winced you could just about justify a position she would return to India.

The homes being in Uk (3) and a home in the US indicates more than tax avoidance. Looks like she has lied. Looks like tax evasion instead.

This looks like an inside job. Et tu Boris :joy:

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You wouldn’t get that impression if you just read the original BBC News article about it. You’d only get the feeling that it was legal albeit unethical. To be fair to them though I think the news about her UK and US homes hadn’t gotten out yet.

Brilliant hatchet job if it’s orchestrated by political rivals though. Doesn’t undermine the fact that if there’s something fishy going on it should be investigated fully and dealt with appropriately. Just because it’s a hatchet job doesn’t mean you aren’t doing something illegal.

I don’t get the argument that she shouldn’t be targeted – being the spouse of a politician doesn’t exempt you from following the rules. If anything, it makes it all the more crucial that you follow the rules.

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I understand that this is a tax loophole that should have been closed but wasn’t. Perhaps that should be the question.

“Why wasn’t this loophole closed?” It was a former Tory policy to close it too.

I think it’s absolutely right that questions are asked on this. This is basically the Chancellor’s own family benefitting from a gap in the department he runs. That raises some real ethics concerns.

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It’s striking that a clip I saw from what I presume was a Parliamentary committee hearing, featuring Richard Bacon, Conservative MP for South Norfolk criticising this very policy. Yet 7 years later, nothing has been done about it.

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Your talking about Tories here and not even normal ones Johnson ones.

With all these gas bags around the UK could surely do a lot more to help Germany, no? :rofl:

Perhaps unfairly but I’ve always had this current government as one that achieves very little. Lots of noise and huffing and puffing but nothing gets sorted properly despite the enormous victory claims.

Another example is that ID for voters just got binned in the Lord’s.

Penny for @Klopptimist’s thoughts. I understand that ‘Dishy Rishi’ sets his heart a flutter somewhat :flushed:

The police bill is another. Been sent back to the commons three times now, with the most draconian measures struck out.

Odd to find that the most effective safeguards to our democracy are a bunch of non-elected and in some cases hereditary peers.

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If you’re married to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, you should be cleaner than a NASA assembly room. There is an argument though that she is her own person and Rishi is not responsible for (nor should he be able to control) her actions. If her conduct is legal and she does pay the correct tax wherever she is domiciled then this is just a news story, not a juicy scandal.

However if she lives here, uses the NHS, enjoys all the privileges of this country etc etc etc, she jolly well should pay tax if nothing more than for the look of the thing.

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I think the point here is that Sunak clearly has personal reasons for not closing a loophole in the department he runs. That’s a problem IMO.

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I felt that the criticism of Sunak’s wife’s interests in a company still operating in Russia was unfair but her potential tax avoidance is definitely fair game.

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‘…uses the NHS…’

Big Brother Reaction GIF by MOODMAN

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She had children here if I’m right? Don’t know if she went private.

If someone can afford to why shouldn’t they go private and help in a small way to not further burden a public utility that’s already stretched? Surely that’s the argument all the Labour MPs who send their kids to private schools make?

My LABOUR MP relative sent their kids to private school. A point I drop regularly when this always comes up. Would you like some more champagne with that socialism?