Hodge the Dodge v The Shadow Cabinet

Last week Guido noted how question-dodging Margaret Hodge was at odds with Chuka Umunna over his use of a £20,000 analyst from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Despite Hodge having worked for the company herself in the past, she suggested that PwC should no longer be given government contracts due to their collusion in “aggressive tax avoidance”. Unfortunately for the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, her shadow cabinet bosses have failed to adopt such a noble position.
In the latest Register of Members’ Interests Ed Balls declares that he has taken on a PwC analyst until March next year, with their £88,060 wage paid for by the company. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing…


It’s taken some time but it seems the Labour kickback machine is getting into gear. The dividing lines are being drawn over the whether or not Labour back the Welfare Uprating Bill that will apparently be published this side of Christmas. In the meantime a nice row is brewing over the so called “Mummy Tax”. After granny and pasties, hidden hits are de rigueur these days. A friend of Ed Balls tells Guido this morning:
Today’s Indy reports on rumours that fuel duty campaigner Rob Halfon will turn to the 10p tax rate for his next trick. Guido can confirm that Halfon will push George Osborne to repeal Gordon Brown’s abolition of the 10p rate, bringing it back for everyone earning under £15,000. The move is inspired by work done by the ASI to produce a living wage through tax cuts rather than wage fixing. Halfon will lobby the treasury to make the move by the 2013 budget, 2014 failing that. A friend of Halfon tells Guido that Gordon’s 10p rate abolition was a “reckless, lunatic thing to do, Robert wants to put that right”.
When Margaret Hodge went off on one about the ‘Big 4′ professional services firms this morning, she awkwardly forgot that 
The seminar, held at the Guardian’s tax efficient offshore-owned York Way offices in October, was organised by Guardian Investing, GMG’s personal finance advice team. This is no third party operation, the Guardian has approved, condoned and even put its name to helping people avoid inheritance tax. Their high-minded journalists wax lyrical about hiding money from the Treasury’s coffers, all the while encouraging tax avoidance on the quiet. 












