It’s a fact that the rich only ever get richer

I WAS sad, rather than angry, to discover that Tony Blair and his wife Cherie did not have to pay more than £300,000 in stamp duty after purchasing a house in London, as leaked documents that were shared with the BBC’s Panorama programme revealed.

Sad? Well, we are talking about a former Labour prime minister who represented a seat in the North East, where that sort of money could have stocked a food bank for months and months.

It is a truism, however, that the rich only get richer. Unfortunately, it is only ordinary people who cannot avoid paying tax. I should think it highly unlikely that there are any Derby Telegraph readers who could afford to buy a property by purchasing the offshore company that owned it, as the Blairs did in this case, although at least Mrs Blair has pointed out the sellers had insisted the building was sold in this way, but they had brought it under UK control. If it is sold, at least they will be liable for capital gains tax.

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Derby