Day one and Labour accused of class war attacks on Sunaks

LABOUR was accused of dirty tricks and launching a smear campaign against Rishi sunak and his wife yesterday by calling for nondom tax status to be abolished.

Pat McFadden, the shadow Chief secretary to the Treasury, wrote to Mr sunak on his first day as Prime Minister saying that axing the status could raise billions of pounds.

But it sparked a backlash, with Tory MPs accusing Labour of trying to attack Mr sunak and his wife over their wealth.

in april it emerged that Mr sunak’s multi-millionaire wife, akshata Murthy, was a non-domiciled uk resident.

it meant she avoided uk taxes on her overseas earnings in return for paying an annual charge of £30,000. The arrangement is perfectly legal.

Mr McFadden denied orchestrating a smear campaign when asked by the Daily Mail, saying: ‘it’s not a policy about one person.’ asked again whether Labour was ‘ deliberately targeting’ the new PM and his wife, he said: ‘You could raise billions of pounds in [scrapping non-dom status] and at a time when we are told next week’s fiscal event is going to involve tough decisions.

‘But this is a different decision he could take [to raise money].’

Labour claims up to £3billion would be raised by scrapping the tax status. anneliese Dodds, the former shadow chancellor, also went on the attack.

she told sky news: ‘We’ve been very clear that we would remove those loopholes for non- doms which mean that they pay far less tax than people who live here and pay taxes in the ordinary way. We would do that so we can pay for more nurses and more doctors in our nhs.’

But former Tory leader sir iain Duncan smith fired back, saying: ‘it’s completely smear tactics and dirty tricks from Labour.

‘it’s childish, pathetic and reducing politics to personalities even though they profess to be above all that.’ Referring to a tweet by Labour MP nadia Whittome, in which she said Mr sunak’s victory was not ‘a win for asian representation’ because of his wealth, sir iain added: ‘i understand some Labour MPs were verging on racism, but what are they doing about that?

‘ it’s utterly outrageous and appalling...Labour needs to stop and put their own house in order.’

Miss Whittome deleted the post on Monday night after being contacted by Labour headquarters and urged to take it down.

But it remained online for several hours and she was still a Labour MP yesterday.

Tory MP andrew Bridgen said: ‘Labour are just jealous because we’re the first party to have a nonwhite prime minister and yet Labour hasn’t even had a woman as leader yet.’

it came as party leader sir keir starmer briefed his shadow Cabinet on the attack lines they should use against the PM – including painting Mr sunak as a ‘weird guy’. By contrast, Labour will present sir keir as a ‘centrist dad’.

Labour’s strategy will also involve painting Mr sunak as ‘a weak prime minister who will have to put his party first and the country second’.

sir keir told the meeting: ‘[Mr sunak’s] first message yesterday was about the need to save the Tory party, not serve the country.’

he also accused Mr sunak of having ‘stabbed Boris Johnson in the back’ by resigning as chancellor this summer, bringing Mr Johnson’s premiership crashing down, and mocked the new PM for getting ‘thrashed’ by Liz Truss in the previous Tory leadership race.

They will also seek to accuse the Government of making working people pay for mistakes made in last month’s mini-budget which exacerbated the public finance crisis. sir keir made no mention of himself being a multi-millionaire. amid the controversy over Miss Murthy’s tax status earlier this year, her spokesman said she would start paying uk taxes on overseas earnings to relieve political pressure on her husband, who was then Chancellor.

at the time Mr sunak described ‘smear’ attacks on Miss Murthy, whose billionaire father is one of india’s wealthiest businessmen, as ‘very upsetting’.

Mr McFadden’s letter, seen by the Mail, said the most pressing task facing Mr sunak ‘ will undoubtedly be to combat the country’s spiralling cost of living.’

it added: ‘One issue which has come to light is “non-dom” status and the idea that those with wealth can... choose in which jurisdiction to pay their taxes.’

The letter asked the PM to scrap non-dom status and guarantee he will not appoint any ministers who have it.

‘Childish and pathetic’