Nigel Farage defends Richard Tice over allegations his firm broke law by failing to pay tax – UK politics live | Politics
Farage says he’s ‘satisfied’ with Tice’s response to allegations his firm broke law by failing to pay tax
During the Q&A Nigel Farage was again asked about Richard Tice and his tax affairs by a reporter who asked why he did not know exactly how much Tice had paid in tax to settle this liability, and whether Tice should give that figure on the record.
Farage started with a hostile response, challenging the reporter to give him a lecture on Reit (real estate investment trust) tax law. When she said she wasn’t an expert on this, he replied: “Nor am I, thank you.” Asked again how much Tice had repaid, Farage said:
double quotation mark If our biggest critic is Labour activist Dan Neidle – and he is a tax expert, he is he’s good at it – if our biggest critic says that Richard Tice has not evaded or avoided tax, has paid the full amount, and actually, maybe even a little bit more the full amount, then I’m satisfied with that.
Neidle himself is active on social media and, while he does not seem to have responded directly to the press conference, he has posted these, responding to the Tice line that because HMRC has not lost out there is no story here.
double quotation mark Mr Tice’s line: a mere technicality and HMRC isn’t out of pocket.It is, however, more than that: Mr Tice obtained an unlawful tax benefit – tax was paid up to 21 months late.
And Mr Tice’s payment didn’t fix the company’s failure to withhold tax – the tax remains due.
double quotation mark Is this an unfair result? It could be in the case of a normal REIT. But this was a REIT driven solely by tax considerations – Mr Tice has all but admitted that.When you play tax avoidance games, you need to stick to the letter of the law. If you don’t, you win tax prizes)
Neidle has posted more on the story here.
Key events
Kwarteng claims Farage’s £2m investment ‘historic moment for Britain’s bitcoin future’
And this is what Kwasi Kwarteng posted on social media about Nigel Farage’s £2m bitcoin investment. (See 1.08pm.)
double quotation mark On Friday we reached a historic moment for @StackBTC and for Britain’s Bitcoin future.@Nigel_Farage executed a £2,000,000 Bitcoin purchase on behalf of Stack BTC at the @blockchain headquarters , backing our mission to build the UK’s premier Bitcoin treasury company and put London at the centre of this new monetary era.
A big thank you to @niccary and his team for a great reception and hospitality throughout the morning.
Labour criticises Farage over £2m bitcoin investment through Kwasi Kwarteng’s crypto firm
Kwasi Kwarteng has a good claim to be the least successful chancellor in British history. But that does not seem to have dented Nigel Farage’s faith in his economic judgment. Last month it was reported Farage had invested £215,000 in Stack BTC, a cryptocurrency business chaired by Kwarteng.
Today Stack says Farage has bought £2m in bitcoin through the company.
double quotation mark BREAKING: Nigel Farage has purchased £2m of Bitcoin for Stack BTC – becoming the first sitting MP and the first UK political party leader in history to publicly buy Bitcoin. A landmark moment for Bitcoin in British politics.
In response, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said:
double quotation mark Nigel Farage is hyping up a former Tory chancellor who crashed the economy, in a bid to line his own pockets.From Farage’s crypto-boosting to his deputy Richard Tice’s admission that his business didn’t pay the taxes it owed, Reform are more interested in themselves than in standing up for working people.
Starmer says UK and France will this week co-host summit on multinational plan to safeguard strait of Hormuz when war ends
Keir Starmer has said the UK and France will co-host a summit this week on a “coordinated, independent, multinational” plan to protect shipping in the strait of Hormuz when the conflict ends.
He said:
double quotation mark The ongoing closure of the strait of Hormuz is deeply damaging. Getting global shipping moving is vital to ease cost-of-living pressures.The UK has convened more than 40 nations who share our aim to restore freedom of navigation.
This week the UK and France will co-host a summit to advance work on a coordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard shipping when the conflict ends.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson confirmed that the UK would not join the proposed US blockade of the strait. He said:
double quotation mark Our consistent position has been that we’re not going to get dragged into this war, but the effective closure of the strait is damaging.The unconditional reopening of the strait is the only way to address the severe impact on the global economy, and our efforts are very much focused on convening a multinational response, which will put the steps in place to restore freedom of navigation and give shipping the confidence it needs to travel through the strait.
Tories claim Farage’s plan for ‘Boriswave’ inquiry amounts to ‘circular firing squad’ given ex-ministers now in Reform UK
The Daily Express has reported a Reform UK source as claiming that the proposed inquiry into the so-called “Boriswave” surge in legal migration will consider whether what Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, his home secretary, was “gross negligence” that “amounted to criminal conduct”.
All this sounds a bit far-fetched. Asked about this claim at the press conference, Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf did not say they were expecting an inquiry to find Johnson and Patel guilty of criminal negligence, but they did not rule it out either. “That’s the point of an inquiry,” Yusuf said.
After the press confernce, the Tories hit back. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said:
double quotation mark We look forward to Reform explaining when their new converts will be hauled into the dock to explain the Suella Surge and the Jenrick Jump.The Conservatives are under new leadership and setting out clear plans to drastically reduce legal immigration. Reform are busy stuffing their ranks with has-been former politicians whilst pretending they represent change.
And a Tory source said:
double quotation mark Zia Yusuf spent months publicly savaging Jenrick and Braverman. Then Farage recruited them anyway. Now Reform are investigating their own frontbench.Nigel Farage’s idea of a functional shadow cabinet is closer to a circular firing squad.
Labour urges HMRC to investigate Tice’s tax affairs
Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, has written an open letter to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) asking them to investigate Richard Tice’s company tax affairs. She said:
double quotation mark Richard Tice’s tax affairs are a major scandal, and they call his integrity and credibility into serious question. Reform’s attempts to describe tens of thousands of pounds of unpaid tax as “a minor administrative error” are laughable. The facts are clear: his business was supposed to pay this tax, and it did not.It’s time for Tice to reveal the tax records that show what taxes he and his companies paid, and to pay any taxes they still owe. If he wants people to believe he’s done nothing wrong, he needs to prove it. The British people rightly demand the highest standards from their political leaders: they clearly won’t get them from Reform.
Tice has called for others to resign over tax errors, but now seems to think that the rules don’t apply to him. He has no credibility at all: he’s not on the side of working people, he’s just in it for himself.
In her letter Turley acknowledged that the last time she wrote to HMRC about Tice’s company, she got a reply saying they would not comment on individuals’ tax affairs. She said she was not asking for a comment; she just wanted to ensure there was an investigation.
Southport attack blamed on ‘catastrophic’ failures by agencies and killer’s ‘irresponsible’ parents
Axel Rudakubana was able to carry out the Southport atrocity because of “catastrophic” failures by multiple agencies and the “irresponsible and harmful” role of his parents, a damning inquiry has found. Josh Halliday has the story.
Farage says he’s ‘satisfied’ with Tice’s response to allegations his firm broke law by failing to pay tax
During the Q&A Nigel Farage was again asked about Richard Tice and his tax affairs by a reporter who asked why he did not know exactly how much Tice had paid in tax to settle this liability, and whether Tice should give that figure on the record.
Farage started with a hostile response, challenging the reporter to give him a lecture on Reit (real estate investment trust) tax law. When she said she wasn’t an expert on this, he replied: “Nor am I, thank you.” Asked again how much Tice had repaid, Farage said:
double quotation mark If our biggest critic is Labour activist Dan Neidle – and he is a tax expert, he is he’s good at it – if our biggest critic says that Richard Tice has not evaded or avoided tax, has paid the full amount, and actually, maybe even a little bit more the full amount, then I’m satisfied with that.
Neidle himself is active on social media and, while he does not seem to have responded directly to the press conference, he has posted these, responding to the Tice line that because HMRC has not lost out there is no story here.
double quotation mark Mr Tice’s line: a mere technicality and HMRC isn’t out of pocket.It is, however, more than that: Mr Tice obtained an unlawful tax benefit – tax was paid up to 21 months late.
And Mr Tice’s payment didn’t fix the company’s failure to withhold tax – the tax remains due.
double quotation mark Is this an unfair result? It could be in the case of a normal REIT. But this was a REIT driven solely by tax considerations – Mr Tice has all but admitted that.When you play tax avoidance games, you need to stick to the letter of the law. If you don’t, you win tax prizes)
Neidle has posted more on the story here.
Asked if he thought the UK should be supporting Donald Trump’s blocked of the strait of Hormuz, Nigel Farage in effect sidestepped the question. He said he was pleased the UK was going to send minesweepers, but he went on:
double quotation mark We can’t get involved – we haven’t got a navy.Even if we wanted to help with the blockade, we do not have the means to do so.
Farage says Badenoch disowning last government’s migration policies shows why you should ‘never trust the Tories’
Q: The figures in your document cover the time when Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick (who have both now defected to Reform UK) were Home Office ministers. Wil they be covered by this inquiry?
Farage said that Jenrick resigned because he disagreed with the Tory govenrmen’s migration policy. And he said Braverman had constant fights with Rishi Sunak over this.
He contrasted their behaviour with Kemi Badenoch’s.
double quotation mark Kemi Badenoch …seems now to dis-associate herself with virtually everything she did and supported whilst being in government.Never trust the Tories. That’s frankly what I would say. Never trust the Tories. What they say at elections and what they do are completely different things.
Farage says closer alignement with EU single market would be ‘total betrayal of Brexit vote’
Farage claimed the government proposal for closer alignement with the EU was “a total betrayal of the Brexit vote”. He said:
double quotation mark Will rejoining the single market grow the economy? Well, it didn’t whilst we were in it and we are rejoining the low-growth capital of the world. We are rejoining economies, many of whom are doing even worse than we are right at this moment in time.It’s a very fast-moving world in lots and lots of ways. The British economy needs to be flexible. It needs to be adaptable, but equally it needs to recognise that Europe is a declining part of the global economy and actually quite rapidly declining. And to tie ourselves ever closer to it makes no sense. In economic terms and in democratic terms, it is a total betrayal of the Brexit vote of ten years ago.
Here is the Reform UK policy document explaining why it is claiming that the “Boriswave” could eventually cost the taxpayer hundreds of billions of pounds.
It says that only 17% of people who arrived in the UK as part of this surge came on work visas.
Farage defends Richard Tice over allegations his firm broke law by failing to pay tax, saying Tice paid up in personal capacity
Farage and Yusuf are now taking questions.
Farage was asked about yesterday’s Sunday Times report saying a company owned by Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, is alleged to have failed to pay tens of thousands of pounds in tax on dividends.
In response, Farage said that Dan Neidle, the tax campaigner who has also looked into the Tice story, backing up the Sunday Times claims, has said that there was “no attempt at [tax] avoidance or evasion” because Tice paid the tax in a personal capacity. Farage said:
double quotation mark If anything, Mr. Tice might have slightly overpaid tax. So has the exchequer lost in any way at all? No.
Farage also said this was “an incredibly complex area of tax law”.
How government experts assess impact of legal immigration as positive – contrary to claims made by Reform UK
The Reform UK claims about the economic impact of legal migration are not in line with the views of mainstream economists and experts.
A few months ago the Migration Advisory Committee, the government’s main expert advisory body, published a report on the fiscal impact of immigration. It looked at the lifetime fiscal contribution made by a particular group of immigrants – people on skilled worker (SW) visas, and their dependents and that that, overall, their lifetime contribution to the British economy is “clearly fiscally positive”.
There is more on the report here.
And here is a quote from the MAC report.
double quotation mark Overall, the SW [skilled work] visa route is clearly fiscally positive for the UK. This is almost inevitable given that main applicants on the route must have a job offer paying above a set of salary thresholds. This means that these migrants have higher employment rates than UK residents since employment is a condition of the visa and as we shall demonstrate, salaries on the SW route are significantly higher than UK average wages. For the 2022-23 cohort as a whole, we estimate a present value net fiscal contribution of around £47bn over their lifetime. However, this estimate hides very substantial heterogeneity. The entire positive contribution comes from main applicants – particularly those outside of H&C [health and care workers – a subset of the SW route].
Zia Yusuf says ‘Boriswave’ migration surge was political scandal, and Reform UK would hold national inquiry into it
Zia Yusuf, the Reform UK chair, is speaking now. He says that, according to govenrment figures, up to 2.2 million immigrants are becoming eligible for indefinite leave to remain. He claims this could eventually cost the country £622bn – three times the annual budget for the NHS.
He gives credit to Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, for wanting to tighten the rules. But he says that Mahmood is under pressure to back down. He says he has heard that she is preparing to resign.
He confirms that Reform UK would abolish indefinite leave to remain status, and terminate all welfare payments to foreign nationals.
And he says Reform UK would hold a national inquiry into how the “Boriswave” legal migration surge was allowed to happen.
He says:
double quotation mark We recognise the historic scale and severity of this financial catastrophe.The Boriswave caused Britain enormous damage and the fact it was done against the wishes of the British people. It is without a doubt one of the biggest political scandals of our lifetimes. It culturally transformed our country and has the potential to bankrupt it.
So a Reform government will commission a national inquiry into the Boris wave, how it happened, who authorised each aspect of it and why the likes of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel will be compelled to testify under oath, along with anyone else involved.
Farage claims allowing ‘Boriswave’ migants to get citizenship and claim benefits would lead to ‘catastrophic’ costs
Farage is now talking about immigration. He says supporters of high immigration always claim this is good for the economy. But they never provide evidence for this, he claims.
And he claims that, if people who arrived in the UK as part of the so-called “Boriswave” (the surge in legal immigration that took place when Boris Johnson was PM), get indefinite leave to remain (normally available after people have been in the UK for five years – although Labour plans to make the normal wait much longer) then the economic consequences will be “catastrophic”.
He says the party publishing a document explaining how ensuring “Boriswave” migrants are blocked from citizenship, and being able to claim benefits, would save every household £20,000.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is holding a press conference. There is a live feed here.
Unusually (normally, he is quite quiet on the subject), he is talking about Brexit. He says the UK voted to leave the EU by quite a large margin, and he says small businesses were overwhelmingly in favour because they wanted to be free of EU regulations. He says that when Kemi Badenoch was business secretary she chose to retain many of those regulations, and he criticises Keir Starmer to wanting to align more closely with EU rules. (See 9.39am.)
