Quite naturally, the latest foray by Labour into pointing fingers at Tory tax avoiders has led to two scraps, firstly about Labour’s own donors and their tax affairs (as James predicted on Thursday) and secondly about whether or not paying your builder in cash is illegal. The last time the second row blew about Westminster, it was after Tory minister and tax personality of the year David Gauke made some rather clumsy comments about paying your cleaner.
Chuka Umunna had a rather tough section of his Today programme interview in which he was repeatedly asked whether Labour would hand back money donated to it by someone who turned out to have been involved in aggressive tax avoidance. He said:
‘As I said I think the Labour Party, if it found out that somebody was engaged in aggressive tax avoidance would think twice before taking the money… I mean you’re asking me a hypothetical question because I’m not aware that we have taken it…’
Jim Naughtie grew rather exasperated at this point, and told Umunna that since his party was talking hypothetically about what it would do in government, he should answer other hypothetical questions too.
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