Ex-banker ‘won’t be bullied’ into making her tax return public
ANDREA Leadsom was under more pressure to reveal her tax records last night as Stephen Crabb became the second Tory leadership contender to do so.
The Work and Pensions Secretary’s returns showed he earned just over £100,000 in the 12 months to April 2015 – and overpaid £255 in tax.
The move will pile pressure on Energy Minister Mrs Leadsom, who is yet to release details of her tax affairs despite questions over her complex financial arrangements.
Fellow candidate Michael Gove has released his, while Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to release hers imminently.
Yesterday Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Mrs Leadsom’s leadership bid, insisted her tax returns were ‘really quite boring’ as she continued to resist calls to publish them in full.
Mr Duncan Smith said he had seen them and claimed she was ‘ not at all embar- rassed’ by them. But her apparent reluctance to publish the returns immediately has raised questions.
The former City banker has refused to release them unless chosen as one of the final two MPs in the Conservative Party leadership contest.
As an MP and Minister, Mrs Leadsom is paid an annual salary of £98,740. It is not known what other earnings, if any, her tax returns show.
She is already facing questions over her finances after it emerged she set up a chil- dren’s trust in 2005 to hold shares in a buy-to-let firm, a tactic often used to reduce inheritance tax.
There is no suggestion she has acted unlawfully. Her spokesman said she would publish her return at the end of the initial stage of the Tory leadership selection process.
It is understood she has told fellow MPs they are welcome to discuss her arrangements but she is apparently unwilling to release documents more widely for fear of setting a precedent for all politicians. Mr Duncan Smith claimed that the trust for Mrs Leadsom’s children was only worth ‘about £100’.
He told Radio 4’s The World At One: ‘We are not going to play silly games about trying to bully individuals to publish their tax returns – she said she was going to do it, she has given that commitment.
‘Her door is open to fellow MPs to come and talk to her and have a look at anything they want about her tax returns. She is not at all embarrassed by them.’