Keir Starmer targets Rishi Sunak’s wife as he steps up dirty war against multi-millionaire PM with dig at Akshata Murty’s non-dom ‘tax loophole’ as Labour seeks to put Tory ‘fingerprints’ all over the cost-of-living crisis facing Britons
Labour turned its guns on Rishi Sunak’s multi-millionaire wife today as it steps up its dirty pre-election war against the Conservatives.
Sir Keir Starmer’s latest attack advert blasted Akshata Murty’s use of non-dom tax status while living in Downing Street at the same time millions of Britons were struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
Sir Keir has told his Cabinet that he wants voters heading to the polls in local election next month to ‘know that Rishi Sunak’s fingerprints are all over their struggling household budgets’.
It comes amid a furore over the tone of a series of Labour Twitter posts criticising the PM personally for disputed failings including weakness on crime.
The digital poster posted this morning says: ‘Do you think it’s right to raise taxes for working people when your family benefitted from a tax loophole? Rishi Sunak does.’
Ms Murty, whose father is an Indian billionaire, sparked uproar last year when it was revealed that she legally held non-dom tax status while living with the then Chancellor in No11. She later agreed to start paying full UK taxes.
But the Tories hit back today, accusing Labour of ‘the height of hypocrisy’ amid questions over Sir Keir’s pension from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Sir Keir Starmer’s latest attack advert blasted Akshata Murty’s use of non-dom tax status while living in Downing Street at the same time millions of Britons were struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
Ms Murty, whose father is an Indian billionaire, sparked uproar last year when it was revealed that she legally held non-dom tax status while living with the then Chancellor in No11. She later agreed to start paying full UK taxes.
But the Tories hit back today, accusing Labour of ‘the height of hypocrisy’ amid questions over Sir Keir’s pension from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The Labour leader urged his frontbenchers to ‘continue to focus relentlessly on exposing the failures’ of the Conservative Government in the run-up to May’s local elections.
In a letter to his colleagues, Sir Keir said the focus should move from crime to the cost of living.
‘Rishi Sunak is the chief architect of choices prioritising the wealthiest and of the government’s failure to get a grip of the economy and get growth going,’ he wrote.
He accused Mr Sunak of ‘supplying the touchpaper for another Conservative government to blow up the economy’ as chancellor and then continuing in No 10 to ‘make choices which loaded the costs on to working people’.
‘The voters must know that Rishi Sunak’s fingerprints are all over their struggling household budgets,’ he said.
Sir Keir said he makes ‘no apologies at all’ for reminding voters of this, echoing his Monday Daily Mail article in which he said he made ‘absolutely zero apologies’ for the ad campaign regardless of how ‘squeamish’ it made people.
The new ad says the Tories ‘have raised taxes 24 times since 2019’ while refusing to ‘close the non-dom tax loophole’ for foreign residents in the UK.
Mr Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty previously held the special tax status, reportedly saving her millions, but after criticism said she would pay UK taxes on all her worldwide income.
A Tory source said: ‘This is the height of hypocrisy from a party which has already made £90 billion of unfunded spending commitments and whose leader stands to benefit from a bespoke, tax-unregistered pension scheme unavailable to others.
‘Rishi Sunak has a plan to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt. Sir Keir (Starmer) only has a plan to play politics on Twitter.’
Last month it was revealed Sir Keir has a unique pension deal that allows him to avoid tax on his savings, despite being a vocal critic of the Government’s pensions shake-up for big earners.
Sir Keir criticised Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget plan to abolish the tax-free limit on pensions savings, which had stood at £1.07 million, describing it as a ‘huge giveaway to some of the very wealthiest’.
The initial ad, which accused the Prime Minister of not wanting child sex abusers to go to prison, caused unease among the shadow Cabinet.
Labour is hoping to benefit in England’s May 4 local elections as the Tories continue to lag far behind in national polls.
But he was himself exempt from tax rules he would apply to other workers who save more than £1 million, under a special arrangement with the Government from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales between 2008 and 2013. He has vowed to remove his own exemption if he comes to power.
The initial ad, which accused the Prime Minister of not wanting child sex abusers to go to prison, caused unease among the shadow Cabinet.
The Twitter post highlighted analysis of official data and said that, under the Tories, ‘4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under-16 served no prison time’.
It shared a photo of the Prime Minister alongside the words: ‘Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.’
Senior figures including former home secretary Lord David Blunkett called for it to be withdrawn, saying Labour is better than ‘gutter’ politics.
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry defended the post on Monday, saying the individual criticism of Mr Sunak was justified as it was ‘based on clear and objective facts’ and he was ‘in a position to be able to do something about it’.
Judges and magistrates, rather than the prime minister of the day, are responsible for handing out sentences.
The figures Labour highlighted cover the period from 2010, five years before Mr Sunak entered Parliament. He did not become Prime Minister until last October.
Further scheduled ads will include one suggesting Mr Sunak thinks it is right that the public is paying for the ‘Conservatives crashing the economy’ through higher housing costs.
Labour is hoping to benefit in England’s May 4 local elections as the Tories continue to lag far behind in national polls.
On a campaign visit to Brighton on Tuesday, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will repeat the party’s pledge to help more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder.
They faced a nearly £500-a-month increase in mortgage bills from January to December last year due to rates soaring under Liz Truss’s government, according to Labour analysis.
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