“Hmmm…that’s a yummy humbug”
I’ve posted three times before about the cloud-shaded past of Sajid Javid. I’ve also posted about Triumpant Tory Hubris Syndrome. A week ago today The Slog wrote:
‘it is an uncanny irony of history that, just when people, organisations and regimes seem to be at the height of their power, a dramatic fall from grace ensues. One thinks of Manchester United after 1968, Nixon after 1972, Thatcher in 1990, the banks after 2008, and the European Union now.’
You have to hand it to Cameron: his choice of colleagues is 100% consistent: Baron Green, Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks et al ad nauseam. In 2012 – having said two weeks earlier he did not wanted tax dodgers in his circle – he promoted Jeremy Hunt to be Health Secretary….who it then transpired had dodged tax by changing the definition of his work premises. A year later, Hunt grinned broadly as a takeover bid looked set to make him a multimillionaire. But the overtakers pulled out somewhat abruptly having read the books. What could this all mean, we wondered. We’re still asking.
Now within days of being appointed Funny Business Secretary, Sajid Javid faces an unwelcome reminder of his past as a highly paid investment banker. For later this year, an HMRC case involving offshore tax avoidance schemes (from which Javid benefitted massively) comes to court. First time around, the Deutsche scam was successfully challenged by HMRC at various tribunals.
Javid was a senior player at Deutsche Bank in 2003 (well there’s a nice steady, above-board bank) when it trumped up the bogus scheme to cut tax on bonus payments. But Rajid ‘Hypocrite’ Javid – when appointed as a Treasury minister in 2010 – sanctimoniously declared that the government would “close down all avenues for tax avoidance whether it is companies or individuals”.
So then, “Once I’m inside the Rich List Club, I shall be firmly locking the door behind me.”
Humbug anyone?
Yesterday at The Slog: Time for Labour to focus on majority injustices
The Slog 