Letter: Linking a chancellor’s wife and Labour’s rich donors

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The “non-dom” tax status is not a loophole — it is a specific provision within the tax code aimed at attracting wealthy foreigners to the UK (“Labour vows to overhaul ‘outdated’ tax perk for rich”, Report, April 26).

Akshata Murty has used the rules as they were intended to be used. That the wife of the chancellor is wealthy and her husband is an MP seems to disqualify her in the eyes of the left from availing of the rules.

Rishi Sunak has been an MP since 2015 but has only been chancellor for a couple of years. The incandescent rage prompted by the revelation is a little misplaced. Labour has said many times previously that it plans to scrap the “non-dom” regime, yet it neglects to mention that it too has benefited from money donated by “non-doms” — Sir Ronald Cohen and Lakshmi Mittal to name two.

Perhaps this time Labour will follow through if it wins the next election. But the party will need more than personal attacks to win — it will need actual policies!

Miles Dean
Head of International Tax, Andersen
London EC2, UK

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