Hodge the Dodge Slams Chuka’s Staffer
Paragon of tax virtue Margaret Hodge is still dodging Guido’s questions over her own Stemcor arrangements, but that didn’t stop her from popping up on the Today programme this morning to call on the government to stop using professional services firms:
“I think using the power of the public purse to purchase contracts is an important power that we have and the big 4 are getting more and more government business as this government chooses to outsource a lot of back office activities so there is a lot of financial payroll. All sorts of activity taking place, audit of local authorities, audit of foundation trusts. Lot of work out there And I think if the big 4 want to access that work they have got to show that they are responsible companies who act properly and who don’t support anybody in trying to avoid tax in an aggressive way.”
Tut, tut, good on Hodge for nobly standing up to the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers. What a shame that two-faced tax-avoidance campaigner Chuka Umunna doesn’t agree. Chuka recently announced that until January 2013 he is lucky enough to have a PwC analyst working for him, with their £20,000 wage kindly paid for by the company.
He isn’t the only one, Rachel Reeves also has a PwC research assistant on board, as did Ed Balls earlier this year. Surely the shadow cabinet will want to take heed of what the chair of the Public Accounts Committee says and dispense with the services of these aggressive tax dodging enabling firms…
Chuka Hodge on the fire.
pwc are the new grauniad
£20,702:50 for 3 months, 2.5 days a week by my reckoning grosses out at a salary of about £166,000 pa.
That is a lot!
That’s about three thousand quid for a five-day week
Wow! That guy has to be some real on-the-ball geek
And he’s assisting Chuckup? Well, I’ll be bound
Don’t it make much more sense the other way round?
I get more than 20 thou a year for doing nothing.
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!
Out! Out! Out!
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!
Out! Out! Out!
Maggie!
Out!
Maggie!
Out!
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!
Out! Out! Out!
It’s supposed to be DIE instead of out. But not until next summer so we can have our street parties.
Not funny.
I was amazed at the grilling Hodge the Dodge got over Stemcor on R4 Toady this morning……oh wait…actually she got a velvet cushion of a ride – just like all Labour politicians do.
And Merseysiders.
Margaret Hodge’s shareholding in Stemcor
2,399,600 shares in Stemcor are currently held in Margaret Hodge’s name. This excludes shares held in trust or in her children’s names. The shareholding equates to 1.26% of the total share capital and the current value of the shareholding is £1.8m. Although Margaret Hodge is a shareholder, she is not involved in the running of the business in any way whatsoever.
http://www.stemcor.com/Response%20to%20further%20allegations%20of%20tax%20avoidance%20in%20the%20UK%20press.aspx
So how many shares does she have in trust or in her children’s names? These questions need answeing.
ROFL
Labour, first class in hypocrisy!
Fucking amazing
Guido Fawkes is likely to say the fiscal hole that Mr Osborne promised to eliminate is bigger now than it was two and a half years ago.
Mmm – interesting I seem to recall Gordon Brown had an entire shadow treasury team staffed for free by (the former) Arthur Andersen/Accenture who had been banned from government work by the Tories thanks to the Delorean fiasco. Surprise surprise when Labour got into power the ban was lifted and business poured into their coffers…..but we won’t hear about this from the BBC
yes and arthur anderson a few years later went down the tubes
Chuka and Hodge wonder if there is any pillow talk
You wouldn’t want to be a fly on that particular wall, would you?
She was misleading like fury in that interview. Accountancy firms don’t manage outsourced payroll and pension – that’s down to the likes of Serco and Capita. And those audits are statutory requirements. Or is the Chair of Public Accounts Committee suggesting we shouldn’t audit local authorities or hospitals? http://sladens-slant.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/letting-spinners-get-away-with-it.html
Hypocrisy and Mendacity – it’s in Labour’s D-N-A.
“popping up on the Today programme this morning”
–
Shocked, one tells you… shocked!
Anyway, doubtless the £4Bpa investigative might of the world’s most trusted professional news monopoly pounced on this and was all over it like a FoI exclusion on a dodgy ‘unique’ exception to the rules?
PWC obviously think that Milliband / Balls will be the next gummint….
Would it make the slightest difference if they were? From where I am standing, tax and spend and tax again Osborne, is following the socialist rule book to the letter.
The thought of that really frightens me.
Rachel Reeves frightens me.Is she Data’s sister.??
Didn’t Hodge have a consultancy contract with either PWC or Anderson Consulting at one stage?
Is MrH@rryC0le still missing?
There is hope for us yet…
Today’th PMQth: Millie Dowler, Millie Dowler, Millie Dowler, Millie Dowler, Millie Dowler…
I demand a Judge Dredd led enquiry
Dropth your weaponthsss..you hath thirty theconds to comply.
Is Dave doing a PMQs as a warm up act for Gideon today?
I just toke toke toke
When did la Hodge become the new “rent a gob” on the Today programme? Is it part of an enhanced wimmin’s agenda at the Beeb or does she work cheap becuae she has interesting ways of dealing with HMRC?
hiding in plain ssssssssssssssight
Chuka was also at the respected firm of solicitors which has a large tax department
Tax opitmisation is one of the main sources of income of London solicitors as everyone in nusiness knows
http://www.herbertsmithfreehills.com/practice-areas/tax
So where does Chuka stand on tax avoidance?
Light on his feet if he has been taken Hodge’s advice.
Don’t do as I do, do as I say.
Tax optimisation is perfectly acceptable if you have the means to obscure the trust fund and substantial private means from your privileged, public school background because Labour voters may not understand, just like Ed Balls said.
The only major accountancy firm ever barred from government work in the UK was Arthur Andersen (later spinning off Accenture Consulting), after its role in De Lorean. Thatcher banned them and they were kept out all the way through the Tory government during which Andersen cultivated Labour heavily – Geoffrey Robinson, Ed Balls and Patricia Hewitt all having close links. It was promptly reinstated in 1997 and secured loads of government contracts, then went bust after its role in Enron was exposed.
the lefties hate maggie but she could in many cases spot a wrong un at 10 paces.
If you accept free gifts from any of these accountancy and lawyers thye always expect a return on thier investments.
Will the letter be in the public domain like mine?
Could not make it up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20610197
Yeah G’day this is Madge hows it hanging maaate? Just trying to find out how the daughter in law is and if she will be home on time for the barbie tonite, and if I need to send a man servant out on another tinny run. Strewth.
Foreign staff.
I am very surprised that a nurse working so closely with the Duchess hadnt been briefed on security, The Australian tv station come out of this very badly as well, i presume if their relative was in Hospital they would be happy for confidential information to be flashed around the world, you have to wonder at their IQ s !
Guido
Funny that you should bring up the “big four” accounting firms
The day after the SEC in the US brought charges against them
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/sec-china-idUSL4N09E1DN20121204
Yet another global scandal
And while you are at it, why did none of these accounting firms even notice the massive fraud, money laundering, zombie lending etc being conducted by the US and UK banks for years?
They did notice it, they were organising it, and keeping quiet.
Nowt to say except *I* wanted that nym!!!
The point of personal service companies is that it should be cheaper to the organisation paying for them as they don’t have the employers national insurance companies contributions to make. Margaret Hodge is for higher public sector costs?
Although, we’ve no idea whether the idiots in the civil service agree contracts in the most beneficial way (paying the gross wages equivalent or less) or have been their usual stupid selves in paying over the odds for a substandard product.
As that well known right wing political blogger,Guido Fawkes, puts it, “austerity for longer, targets missed, taxes up, spending squeezed”.
And so very very little have we been told about this mess by our supposedly Free Press
At the moment austerity does not exist in my vocabulary. I’ve been spending on Amazon the last few days. So they avoid tax – like I give a monkey’s.
Labour are on 44%, 14 percentage points ahead of the Tories on 30%.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
Cameron is fucking useless c**t, he couldn’t even win an election against the one eyed mong mentalist or as it looks this slobbering joowish Marxist geek.
This blog is attracting some very strange posters, do you feel better for posting an abusive comment ? stupid ******
Not to worry guys as I told Osborne this morning, tax cuts will take money out of the economy.
Hodgypodgy was on her hind legs at PMQs demanding that the PM take action against tax avoiding companies. PM agreed they do need looking into.
And both with a completely straight face too!
Hodge the tax dodge! tut tut.
Umunna is gradually replacing Keith Vaz as the slimiest of Westminster greaseballs
It’s going to be a long struggle . . .
Abuse of the procurement process for political purposes is actionable under EU law. Very expensively. Sometimes, you know, EU law has its uses.
Is Ms Hodge suggesting that a business should not act in the best interests of its clients. That is a quick way for them to get sued!
Hypocrisy and a lack of shame of it are prerec err prewreck errrr essential these days if you want to be a poly old boy.
We are suing PWC as well
http://www.morningwhistle.com/html/2012/FinanceMarkets_1204/215834.html