Monday 11 May 2009
Huge problems ahead for Hazel Blears
Hazel Blears, affectionately referred to by some as "the little chipmunk" is in a spot of bother methinks. First of all it was her thinly veiled criticism of Gordon Brown, the "YouTube if you want" piece in 'The Observer'. A lot of pent up anger from Brown I imagine to come her way, you cross that man at your peril - he is really vindictive. But it isn't her likely sacking that ought to be her biggest worry. No it's her manipulation of the system regarding second homes. Roll back to 2004 when Ms Blears sold her flat in London making a profit of £45,000. Because, so far as the tax people were concerned it was her main residence, she wasn't liable to pay capital gains tax. But just a few months before she was claiming parliamentary allowances for it as her second home. So effectively it was a win-win situation for her. To me this is quite clearly fraud - a criminal offence. Her behaviour seems so flagrantly wrong and I believe that she has to be prosecuted for what has happened.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Opinion seems to be that it is possible for an MP to nominate which of their two homes is their main or secondary residence from the point of view of avoiding capital gains tax payment regardless of whether that same property has benefited from the second home allowance. If that is so it is absolutely crazy and wrong.
Apparently Ms Blears has tried to get on to the moral high ground by waving a cheque in front of the cameras being what she describes as the sum of money she owes the taxman in CGT. Not that she did anything wrong of course. It has been pointed out by some that a back payment can't be done like this: you have to wait for the tax people to invoice you, to possibly include penalty and interest payments. So it's quite possible that this is gesture politics. It's interesting too that she hasn't a problem in writing a cheque for over £13,000 so not too hard up then!
Post a Comment