Labour fires stinging attack at the nation’s top taxpayers
‘He has lived a narrow life. Luckily they [Labour] can’t even run a campaign, let alone the country’
SOME of Britain’s most prominent business leaders have described Jeremy Corbyn as “clueless” and said he had led “a narrow life” after he criticised them in an election campaign speech.
Crispin Odey, a financier, and Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct boss, hit back at the Labour leader who in a blistering attack on capitalism accused them of taking advantage of the UK’S “corrupt system”. In his first campaign speech in the run-up to the Dec 12 election, Mr Corbyn promised to go after some of Britain’s richest people in an effort to position the Labour Party as being on the side of the “many, not the few”.
Mr Ashley called the Labour leader “clueless”. Mr Odey, a Brexit-backing Tory donor who runs one of the country’s largest hedge funds, said: “He just doesn’t know many people. He has lived a narrow life.
“Luckily they [Labour] can’t even run a campaign, let alone the country.”
The Labour leader also singled out Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, the Duke of Westminster, a landowner, and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, of energy firm Ineos. The three contribute about £167million to the Exchequer annually.
They are responsible for creating more than 80,000 jobs and generating hundreds of millions of pounds more in income taxes. At Battersea Arts Centre in south London, Mr Corbyn had said: “You know what really scares the elite? What they’re actually afraid of is paying their taxes.
“We’re going after the tax dodgers. We’re going after the dodgy landlords. We’re going after the bad bosses. We’re going after the big polluters. Because we know whose side we’re on.”
Sir Jim, a Brexit supporter who has attracted criticism for his links to fracking, is one of the UK’S richest people, with an estimated wealth of £18billion.
The 67-year-old is also the fifth largest individual contributor to the Exchequer, paying more than £110 million in taxes in the 2017-18 tax year, according to the Sunday Times tax list. Ineos employs about 22,000 people worldwide and has a £46billion turnover.
The Duke of Westminster, 28, and his family own 93 acres of land in Kensington and Chelsea. They paid an estimated £27million in tax last year.
Mr Ashley, 55, whose firm Sports Direct’s treatment of staff has been criticised in the past – is believed to have paid more than £30million tax in the same year, putting it in the top 25 taxpayers in the country. Sports Direct is a £1.6billion business with 29,000 staff.
Mr Murdoch – a former father-in-law of Mr Odey through his daughter Prudence – built Sky from nothing in 1989 and made it a major player in broadcasting. Mr Murdoch, 88, also owns The Times and Sunday Times newspapers.
Mr Odey, 60, a fund manager, was incorrectly described by Mr Corbyn as a banker and was criticised for betting on a fall in the pound on the eve of the 2016 referendum, a gamble thought to have generated huge returns for his investors and himself.
Mr Corbyn said: “Whose side are you on? The greedy bankers like Crispin Odey, who makes millions betting against our country and has donated huge sums to Johnson and the Conservatives? Or are you on the side of working people who create the wealth that’s then squirrelled away in tax havens?”
He proposed higher taxes on bankers and called for the renationalisation of rail, mail and water firms. Labour had suggested it could pay under market value to buy these firms from investors that include pension funds that manage millions of savers’ nest eggs.
It came as a source close to the leader endorsed a call from the Labour MP Lloyd Russell-moyle, a Corbyn loyalist, to effectively outlaw extreme wealth, saying: “Every billionaire is a policy failure.” The MP earlier told Emma Barnett on BBC 5 Live: “I don’t think anyone in this country should be a billionaire.”
Mr Corbyn was criticised by Carolyn Fairbairn, of the CBI, who said: “Labour has been silent on the value business brings for too long, focusing solely on the negatives. It is right to challenge where there are proven instances of poor behaviour but it is wrong to ignore the thousands of brilliant British businesses working to provide jobs, boost communities and create products and services that improve lives.”
Adam Marshall, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said no political party “can claim it will rebuild and transform the economy without a partnership with businesses”.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance warned Mr Corbyn that he should be “more careful about playing the politics of envy by singling out individuals for attack”.
Matt Kilcoyne, of the Adam Smith Institute, said: “Corbyn may want to chase off higher earners and shut their businesses down to appease an angry mob of his own making. But in doing so, he’ll shut hospitals, schools and care homes that run on the taxes higher earners pay and from which we all benefit. His plans might be aimed at a few, but will end up punishing the many.”