Red Ed has made an overture to the protesters at St Paul’s, four weeks late to the prom. Some of his advisers still rooted in the reality based community have been struggling to stop Ed leaping over this latest electoral cliff, but they seem to have lost the battle. One said last week: “Not since his brother David was snapped holding a banana has a dafter Miliband photo opportunity been suggested.” It’s not very hard to see why they would be concerned: multi-millionaire Ed, who maintained his family’s wealth through some colourful inheritance arrangements, despite being on an income of £139,355 plus expenses, is in 1% denial. Meanwhile occupiers have been arrested for dealing crack and St Paul’s are outraged at a “dirty protest” defecation on their steps. Just have a look at Red Ed’s new friends:
Also jumping on the bandwagon is the privately educated son of a wealthy businessman Chuka Umunna, who will be speaking for the opposition today in response to a report published by the dwindling campers. The darling of the new Labour left will be facing some tough questions if he actually goes down to the site. Tax avoidance is the number one issue to this “movement” and Umunna’s Teflon image took a pounding this weekend. He made a name for himself in February with a punchy attack on Barclay’s Bob Diamond at the Treasury Select Committee on the subject of tax havens, forcing the banking baddie to admit that he didn’t actually know how many offshore subsidiaries his organisation had. However, in that 1% kinda way, Chuka has his own offshore dealings to thank for those sharp suits:
“A Labour frontbencher who has led the attacks on ‘tax avoiders’ in the City is at the centre of controversy after it was revealed his £1 million family home was funded from a tax haven. Land Registry documents reveal the house’s complicated ownership structure. Its purchase was funded by Vona Limited, a company registered in Jersey, and in turn owned by companies run by the RBC Trust Company. RBC, also based on the Channel Island, boasts it is one of the ‘top ten’ largest wealth managers in the world, offering services to ‘high net worth clients’ including ‘planning for and mitigating income, capital gains or inheritance taxes’. A tax expert said: ‘These trusts can cost thousands to run. I can’t think of any reason to do that other than to reduce a tax bill.’”
One thing Chuka won’t be repeating when he leads the charge for Labour today is an off-the-cuff quote he once gave the Standard: “I’m middle class. My struggle, in some senses, is: what struggle?” Quite…
UPDATE: Does Ed agree with his new friends that poppy sellers are “baby killers”?
