Winston and the Labour tax avoiders

AS FRONTMAN of TV science series Making Babies, The Human Body, and Superhuman, lord Winston’s friendly manner and trademark moustache have made him a familiar presence in millions of homes. So the labour leadership was delighted when the fertility expert, who still works in the NHS, agreed to front their local election TV broadcast last week.

Winston, a veteran party member, declared he ‘ holds’ labour’s values. He’s right there. Along with Ken livingstone and David Miliband, he funnels his vast media earnings through a company to reduce his tax bill.

Winston set up Kayplot ltd in 1999 as his TV career was taking off. He is the sole shareholder and he and his wife lira are directors. By setting up a company in this way, Winston can avoid paying a high rate of national insurance. He can also reduce his tax by choosing the timing of his dividend payouts and by paying corporation tax of 28 per cent rather than the top income tax rate of 50 per cent — which remains in force until next year and was introduced by the last labour government. The potential for savings is huge. Winston’s earnings, represented as profits in his accounts, were £498,000 in 2010-11; £497,000 in 2009; £448,000 in 2008; £404,000 and £319,000 in the two preceding years.

The revelation that Ken livingstone operated a company has cost him dear in the london Mayoral race, and Red Ed Miliband has attacked tax avoidance as a ‘terrible thing’. Is this the same Ed Miliband who, with his brother David used a special ‘Deed of Variation’ to reduce inheritance tax exposure on their parents home after the death of their father Ralph, a Marxist historian? Truly, they’re all in this together?