Labour attack social media ad targets Rishi Sunak family over tax status

Campaign, seen as a precursor to general election expected next year, has become heated with Labour accusing Sunak of being responsible for tough consequences of cost-of-living crisis

Britain’s Opposition Labour Party has been gearing up for the upcoming local elections for councils across England next month with sharply worded social media advertisements targeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s track record, with the latest one on Tuesday alluding to his wife Akshata Murty’s past tax status.

The campaign, seen as a precursor to the general election expected next year, has become heated with Labour accusing Sunak and the governing Conservative Party of being responsible for the tough consequences of the cost-of-living crisis on voters.
 

In an apparent reference to Murty’s now-relinquished non-domicile (non-dom) tax status allowing her to pay taxes on her shares from Infosys, the latest Labour campaign advert takes aim at the ‘loophole’ which it has committed to abolish if elected.
 

It reads: “Do you think it's right to raise taxes for working people when your family benefitted from a tax loophole? Rishi Sunak does.” “A Labour government would freeze council tax this year, paid for by a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants. And we’d scrap the Tories' non-dom tax loophole,” the Labour Party said in a statement.
 

The controversial ad campaign began last week, with the first reading: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.” It cited data from the UK Ministry of Justice showing that 4,500 adults convicted of sex acts on children avoided a prison sentence since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. 

UK business lobby fires chief after misconduct probe

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) fired its director general, Tony Danker, after Britain’s biggest business lobby group was rocked by a slew of sexual misconduct allegations.
 

Danker was dismissed with immediate effect following a probe into workplace misbehavior, the CBI said. 
 

The group named its former chief economist, Rain Newton-Smith, as its new director general. Danker stepped back last month at the start of a probe by law firm Fox Williams.

- Bloomberg