I'm watching Hazel Blears on Sky News saying that she is going to pay the capital gains tax of £13,000 on her house sale, even though she says it wasn't liable. It was an emotional interview with Sky's Jon Craig and she appeared that she might break down at any moment. Call me an old softie, but I really felt she was talking from the heart. I know people think I have a blind spot regarding Ms Blears, but I like to think I can recognise a genuine person when I see one. Politics is politics, but this gesture is one I believe to be heartfelt and genuine.
Now, will Geoff Hoon, Alistair Darling and James Purnell follow suit?
68 comments:
Normally my wife is pretty level headed and tolerates my political activity but she was just standing there shouting at the telly as Blears was shedding crocodile tears waving a crumpled cheque trying to divert attention from the fact that she is now a self-confessed tax evader.
"I discussed the matter with my family" she says. So she's got her story straight for Mr Plod.
Probably an admission of the end of her political career too
As she does not owe HMRC any money won't they be obliged to send the cheque back? In private of course.
She has specified a rather precise amount of Capital Gains Tax.Given that she hasn't submitted a computation earlier and is therefore negligent,how would she know what interest and penalties the Revenue would be seeking ?
Iain. How can Hazel pay CGT when the payment has not been agreed or required by the HMRC? Di you consider that this move might be gesture politics of the most cynical kind?
You old softie, you!
Blears should be subjected to a full inspection by the Revenue.
You are going soft Iain.
What about her other three properties she 'flipped'?
Shouldn't she also be refunding the taxpayer for those too?
I have absolutely NO sympathy for her or any of the other crooks in Westminster - and I notice that Baroness Uddin has gone very quiet - are the police investigating her then?
Let's not forget the Labour Lords & Lady Piggies.
You speak from the heart Sir, but I'm only sorry in the sense that the woman has been hung out by that saggy gnarled busted flush Brown, who is doing his usual Macavity act down in the bunker.
Iain,
We don't think you have a soft spot for Hazel - we KNOW you have one!
A.
Good start - I'm very surprised that since Cameron's press conference this afternoon, Brown hasn't stood up and said anything. I wonder whether she did this on her own initiative - I suspect she did.
I understand that while tomorrow's Telegraph revelations are going to concern 12 Lib Dems, Thursday's edition has been reserved for the most egregious abuses by people from all parties. Balls and Cooper have been noticeably absent from the coverage so far, but who else has also been mysteriously left out? Harman's been rolled out as a sort of spokesperson for Labour since this started, so I am assuming she has behaved properly, but I do note she's not been mentioned either. Of the Shadow Cabinet, I don't think we've heard anything of Eric Pickles - and there are backbenchers like the Wintertons I'd hope to have seen discussed by now. I'm anticipating Thursday's papers with a mixture of fascination and dread.
wv = pooded, which is probably descriptive of how a lot of MPs are feeling at the moment.
Honestly Iain, get a grip. The woman is a fraudster. Anyone else would havce been nicked, been swabbed, dapped and photographed, banged up in the pokey, interviewed, released on bail pending enquiries several hours later at the very least. She is still pleading she wasn't liable, so if that's the case why is she paying it? Guilty conscience is why. Trouble is she and all the rest have been caught out and they're being let off lightly by simply paying some or all back. Other crims don't get that luxury do they?
>>I know people think I have a blind spot regarding Ms Blears...<<
I'd always assumed that your admiration of Blears was entirely satirical... apparently not.
Shame, that.
Iain,
Don't be a mug. I'm sorry but I've sat in front of Hazel. She hates you and everything you stand for, politically.
Genuine? She genuinely took the piss and tried to avoid paying the Capital Gains tax that we all know she should have paid.
Don't feel too sorry for her
Even though she wasn't liable?
Does she think HMRC take donations or something? She will have to hill out a tax return like any ther tax payer, and she will have to make an assessment of her own liability otherwise the tax man will make an assessment on her.
What is it about Blears ?
Matthew Parris joined you in expressing a degree of admiration last week.
Is she becoming the Judy Garland of UK politics ?
Iain, tend to agree with you.
Good for her. She is the first Labour politician to show some dignity and courage in this whole affair. Quality effort Hazel.
Now this makes things interesting. Blears has played a good card here. Brown deflected the attention on her via the spin machine. He wants her out because she criticised him especially over YouTube.
Now this double bluffs Brown as she was the first and she acted with dignity. Now the others will have to act. This makes it slightlu more awkward for Brown to sack her now.
Nice work Hazel
"Well Done Hazel Blears"The only thing she has done well is the publicity stunt.
Calling in the Sky news cameras and handing over a cheque to a tame Sky News reporter is hardly showing contrition is it? She even blamed the system saying she was forced to declare her London flats as her main homes (Was she? Three times in a year?).
On the plus side, this may be enough to send Speaker Martin into hospital as he now has Government Ministers on Sky News saying his process is crooked.
Nope this is a seedy attempt by Blears to save her skin. What would have been so wrong about doing this in a dignified private manner?
ALERT!!!
ALERT!!!
Simon Heffer PRAISES David Cameron for his moral integrity regarding his expenses and the way he has dealed with the crisis!!!
McSnot on News 24 trying to make out it's all his idea.
What a Hoon.
Iain
This is the woman who "was minded" to override multiple planning refusals in favour of Wimpey's sticking 300 ugly townhouses in my village with no investment to add more portakabins to those already in use at the local primary school, no NHS dentist in sight, and no investment in the transport infrastructure...
I have no sympathy at all. She has participated in the rape of our country in all manner of ways.
Yeah its an old trick when you are in the dock just before sentencing..Have good weep throw in a bit of fake remorse works a treat..........on the mugs
Iain your an old softie
I'm afraid I don't see Blears as a chipmunk anymore, not since I saw that Times 'nature notes' cartoon of her as a snail with 3 shell/houses on her back (Gastropada cabinetminista).
Iain, your love in with Blears is rather distasteful, on oh so many levels. Look, its all very well her coming out now and saying she’s going to pay the ‘CGT’, but I reckon she was about to be forced to, so it’s a political, calculated, move.
I made this point O/T on the previous thread. I have a feeling that HM C&R might just want to point out there’s interest and late payment charges to pay on that (we’d have to and no mistake). And someone on Sky made an interesting point: “If it wasn’t a CGT liability, what will HM R&C do with the cheque?” They can’t cash it if it’s not due. If it is, then yep, interest/late payment charges. But then that’s a definition of non payment of tax originally. She’s a Minister. Oh what a tangled web..
wv auresses
Josh, Iain,
There is point shouting at people when they get it wrong only to be told one is 'going soft' if one says a few words of praise if they try to put right their wrongs.
Of course her cabinet job is on the line, but ultimately whether she is in the cabinet or outside it, it is the voters of Salford who decide if she is an MP or not.
Of course, there is an element of self-interest in any calculation but I think she is being honest when she says that she has her party's interests at heart.
Iain, you really have to get over the chipmunk. You do have a soft spot for her. She is a contemptible fabian socialist who believes she knows best and hates what you stand for. Will you open your eyes and stop being taken in by her, it does you no credit.
Her action today was a stunt, an attempt to deflect criticism, that is all.
Will DD be paying his back? Just asking....
"Is she becoming the Judy Garland of UK politics ?"
Clang clang clang went the trolley...
Is Blears's very precise CGT calculation based on the old rate of 40% or the new rate of 18% conveniently brought in by Darling last year? When did the "flipping" occur?
It's a stunt, and won't HMRC have to either send the cheque back as an overpayment or charge her with fraud?
Deeply suspicious that Balls and Cooper have not appeared yet. Has the DT's political editor done a grubby deal with his old friend Damian McBride?
There's no CGT liability. HMRC rules mean that anyone with two properties can choose which is exempt from CGT regardless of how long they have owned it or how many days they live there.
Hazel is having to pay the 'tax' because the Telegraph has lynched her.
I can't agree, Iain. She should be investigated for fraud. She deliberately flipped homes to maximise the amount she could claim on the ACA, and tried to evade CGT in the process. She is a criminal and she knows it.
It occurs to me that we will never get a house full of sea green incorruptibles- there simply aren't enough angels in the universe. I'm far from convinced that many of the public would act better if they knew that their fellows were acting the same and weren't suffering any consequences.
Nonetheless those now being found out need to suffer, not for retribution, but to ensure that their successors, and those that survive, behave better in the future.
Much of this commentary is getting hysterical. Hazel Blears has not committed fraud or tax evasion; she has simply engaged in highly creative tax avoidance.
While most Labour MPs likes to fulminate against tax avoidance there is normally nothing wrong with it. What makes it distasteful in this case is that the MPs are using loopholes which they created and which are only accessible to them. But even so it is at worst immoral; it is not (yet!) illegal.
Yes, it goes beyond expenses - What about the Liberal Democrats and the Michael Brown donation exceeding £2 Million?
Rather than saying Sorry and paying the money back the Liberal Democrats cry they took it in good faith.
To the I say Rubbish!
The Investors in good faith wrote cheques to Michael Brown or the company that ended up donating the stolen Money to the Liberal Democrats.
Clegg has only said what he has said on MP's expeses to do to play catch up. What the Liberal Democrats have not done is even pay back the Michael Brown donation - they should do so.
I sort of see what you mean, but she's genuinely upset because all her years of Labour activism, rising to the cabinet, have been trashed by flipping.
She has built her whole life on the idea that Labour are inherently cleaner and more honest than the Tories. And look at what she's done...
At least you get the feeling she'll been regretting what she's done for a long, long time. That, and cursing people like Osborne and Cameron for being wedged up.
If Ms Blears was liable for CGT then she is a tax evader. If she was not liable, then won't HMRC simply deduct the £13k from her annual tax bill? Surely they can't just accept cheques from people willy-nilly.
Even non-'ordinary' people like Blears.
Oh come off it Iain. A piece of paper hasn't been waved around to such emetic effect since Chamberlain. Mind you it looked as though she's had lessons from the Magic Circle the way it appeared out of thin air. 'Abracadabra, all my misdeeds have disappeared'
I think you are being too soft. She even dramatized it further by having a cheque in her hand; but you can't just send money to the tax man until he asks for it - he'll more than likely send it back. One thing is for sure; she must be getting a lot of stick from the voters of Salford.
However, I do have to say she's taken some action on her own initiative (I think), and I'm sure she's genuinely sorry.
But, I just hope the whole sorry expenses episode eventually results in the electorate finding a renewed interest in what happens in our Parliament, and that Parliament itself is re-clothed in dignity, honesty and a rightful desire on the part of all politicians to put the interests of our Nation and it's people first in all they do.
She just proposing to pay back the tax she avoided .... before the Inland Revenue expose her for a tax fraud.
What about the expenses she mis-appropriated to furnish and enhance her properties. When will that money be paid back?
I hope this is the political end of this particular vermin (that's all a chipmunk is - red haired vermin).
Well done Hazel my a*se
The chipmunk was clearly very subdued when interviewed yesterday. The girl knows she done wrong.
In terms of payment: she, you, me, anybody can make a donation to the exchequer.
I have no intention of picking on anybody - labour tory libdem. Its clear the whole issue of wage restraint at various times and the culture of compensating expenses rules has reached critical mass. I do not call for beheadings - just restitution.
However I draw the line at people like Smith who clearly is misrepresenting her circumstances. No way can her sisters back room be her 'home'. The fact that she then claims expenses for her real first home adds to this. this is fraud and brown should sack her - oops, he is doing the same thing!
Call me a cynic. By paying back the money Hazel has saved her ministerial career, thereby protecting the much greater financial benefit that a ministerial salary provides for the next year. I predict she will be moved, but as a result of this action, stay a highly paid Minister. Kerching.
Iain, her grinning at the cameras over the weekend as she fast marched to her car "stating everything was within the rules" was the most repugnant thing I have seen for a long time. *That* was the true Hazel Blears. Not this broadway performance.
I'm surprised you've been so taken.
Is there any news on Vaz paying anything of his 75 large back?
why is Hazel Blears flashing her bank account details to the public? Doesn't she know already how cunning the computer literate are? Isn't she worried about the security of her data?
And the similarity with Chamberlain when she wave that cheque was quite uncanny.
"To prove I've done nothing wrong, I'm going to pay back the money I Stole. To prove it was within the rules that I was allowed to steal it"
Iain.
Stop it. It's embarassing. What little credibility you had is evaporating rapidly. You are already marked as a political commentator who KNEW what was going on, yet said nothing and then DEFENDED ALL of them.
I may just puke
@ Swiss Bob
"I'm sorry but I've sat in front of Hazel. She hates you and everything you stand for, politically."
Good fun though, wasn't it?
OH Piss off and puke on your own blog then.
You are talking bollocks as usual. I have talked about MPs expenses any times over the last ten years. Clearly you havent read any of my blogposts or heard any of the interviews I have done over the last few weeks. I have not defended the system at all.
Some twit called Stephen Yeo said:
"There's no CGT liability. HMRC rules mean that anyone with two properties can choose which is exempt from CGT regardless of how long they have owned it or how many days they live there. Hazel is having to pay the 'tax' because the Telegraph has lynched her."
Not so. HMRC don't make the rules. The Law is called the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992. The question of which is your main residence is a matter of fact unless you nake a declaration up to 2 years after the beginning of an accounting period for which you want to make a claim, but if you do so only after you have sold one of your two houses you can only make that declaration for the last 2 or possibly 3 years.
The main residence relief is only available in full if the property has been treated as a main residence for the entirety of the period in which it was owned (although the last 36 months are disregarded for these purposes), and is otherwise pro-rated.
Thus if the facts that generally implied that the property was not Blears' main residence she could only benefit from a complete exemption if she had given notice to the Revenue that she intended to treat it as her main residence within 2 years of the start of the accounting period in which she acquired the property.
s222 TCGA 1992 if you want to look it up.
"Call me an old softie, but I really felt she was talking from the heart"
Whooosh goes the last stand of credibility you had as a politicial commentator. She is professional thief. She planned her ascent to a position where not only could she steal MY money but dictate the rules we all live under. Including what expenses she could claim. And boy, did she claim. Just like the rest of them who "made" the rules.
Tread carefully Iain. If you lie with dogs, you'll end up with small, ginger fleas.
PS. Plenty of puke regarding the filthy corrupt 646 dogs who rule us on the OH blog
"I have not defended the system at all."
When did I mention the system Iain?
Hazel Blears gets the Keyboard Cat treatment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-NVqtjTbIY
Will they follow suit...? Iain, I don't care, to be honest.
I'm not that bothered if Cameron is saying that the front bench should pay back money they should never have had - this is not to me any moral high ground at all, except relative.
The other parties should get behind this idea of auditing *all* 'honourable' members allowances (dealing with the receipted ones) and abolish unreceipted ones.
This is the only way we will have accountability. Now is our only chance. Without politics in it, making them accountable to one another the MPs will be simply unaccountable again. Because its clear that they don't care about being accountable to the public.
The fact that Hazel Blears has just stumped up more than £13,000 is just another indicator of the vast gap between MPs who are supposed to represent the people and the people. Never been to Salford but I would guess that a good percentage of Blears's constituents don't earn £13,000 in a year and yet she can just write a cheque for what is to most people a huge sum.
As a newcomer to blogging, I was beginning to empathise with you. Until now. Ms Blears' body language doesn't suggest honesty or contrition.
Well done to Hazel Blears!
Repaying the CGT she owes the country is a truly magnanimous gesture. It is easy to criticise the politicians who work tirelessly to make our dreams and aspirations a reality, even in the face of a disgustingly cynical media and a minority of disruptive nay saying MPs in the commons. By taking a stand against "the system" of expenses, tyrannically imposed by our structurally violent British history, she once more affirms our faith in democracy and the rule of law!
... and what about paying back one of the £900 televisions, the £200 towels etc etc etc
Some other blogs are reporting that she only wrote out the cheque after speaking to Gordon,implying that he told her; TO PAY THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX.
If this take is true then we can expect our screens to be filled anytime soon with Alistair Darling and Geoff Hoon flashing the pay-back cheques from their profitable and taxpayer funded forays into the world of property speculation. Can't we?
Of course it could be as I believe that the talk with Gordon was him trying to tell her not to take this course of action, put bluntly he was telling her; DO NOT PAY THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX.
His concern was this would set a precedent a moral compass if you like that other Minsters would not be in any rush to copy. We will see...
Can someone explain something to me about the ACA? Why, when a politician sells a second home, are they allowed to keep any profit? Who pays for the second home in the first place, the MP?
If Blears send the cheque she's been waving about to HMRC, what are they going to do with it? Without a declaration on her tax return which would lead to a capital gain tax charge, the HMRC have nowhere to credit the cheque. So effectively Bliars has 'avoided' paying the CGT by not declaring the capital gain.
Perhaps HMRC will consider her being charged with tax avoidance. That would be interesting. That's what the US tax authorities got Al Capone on...
Alex I understand there are some time constraints affecting which residence is exempt - I didn't comment on those - but my point, which I don't think you are disputing (despite calling me a twit) is that it is entirely possible for one property to be the main residence for ACA purposes and for either or both of two properties to have CGT exemption.
I have two days away working so have not posted on the 'I'm not as big a fraudster as you' farago, that all parties are indilging in.
As far as I am concerned the fact that a non parliamentary fraudster cannot just write a cheque and say sorry,saying but it was in the rules that I wrote with my fellow fraudsters and get away with it. The same should apply to Parliamentary fraudsters. True leadership by Cameron would have been wholesale sackings on his front bench.
I see that this bunch of chancers still expect to sit in the Houses of Parliament passing Laws that govern our lives having spent four years trying to avoid publication of their expenses.
No credibility,no mandate, no legitimacy - they should go
Hazel Blears might have been brandishing a cheque - that does not mean that it will be paid to HMRC or that they will accept it as full settlement.
Labour are not to be trusted on this - they still hold the £600,000 from the Dodgy Donor.
Brown also acknowledged a cheque for £50,000 from the same donor but said "they" had torn it up. That was an illegal action as it is specified that such suspect donations must be handed to the Electoral Commission and are forfeit [as is the £600,000].
Very shortly afterwards Brown made a personal donation of £50,000 to party funds.
Of course, the LibDems also hold onto the £2.4 million they had from a convicted fraudster. No shame in that, I suppose it is covered by the "rules".
Many of us were taken in by the chief snake oil salesman TB and look what a shit he turned out to be.
Blears from the same mould, the only difference she is still within the reach of the long arm of the Law & HMRC - No ifs, no buts ...
How can she not be liable ????
Either it was her 2nd home and eligible for the expenses she claimed but liable to capital gains or it was her main residence and not eligible for expenses but free from capital gains liability. She cant have it both ways.
I personally have sold off several investment properties aquired in better times over the last 7 years, a few of which I actually occupied whilst working 100+ miles away from home as an hard pressed IT contractor and already suffering from ridiculous and unfair IR35 tax rules and not allowed to claim anything in expenses for travelling to my "normal place of work". I have paid capital gains tax on all of these properties and now have a mountain of unsecured debt much of which was racked up in paying this extremely inconvenient CGT.
If I had pulled a stunt like Ms Blears I would have expected the tax man to come knocking on my door if not the police feeling my collar.
I couldn't watch all that interview. Once again, I watched a politician who did not speak like a normal human being. Instead she had her messages to get across, and her soundbites to drive home.
If I could sit and listen to Hazel Blears being honest and sincere about what she's done, I could at least think well maybe things will be different in future.
But I did not hear that, and hearing some heartening views by her on other issues, and despite Iain's support, I will just think good riddance when she's gone.
Will Darling, Hoon and Purnell follow suit - err, no. Unless it is a the business end of a gun !
And, please - if she is waving a cheque, why ? And how much has she made to be able to do that from her current account.
You can be a dickhead at times !
How ironic when talking about Blears and her cheque in the last entry - the word verification code for this entry is "stank"
Mmmmm !
Hazel Blears, isn't she out of control?
Post a Comment