Labour’s millionairess Margaret Hodge’s family business pays very little tax:
The Labour MP has been one of the fiercest critics of tax avoidance by companies such as Starbucks, Google and Amazon. However, she is likely to face questions over the limited tax paid by Stemcor, the steel trading company in which she owns shares and which was founded by her father and is run by her brother.Analysis of Stemcor’s latest accounts show that the business paid tax of just £163,000 on revenues of more than £2.1bn in 2011. However. it is not known whether the company – which made profits of £65m – used similar controversial tax avoidance measures criticised in the past by Mrs Hodge. Stemcor’s tax bill to the exchequer equates to just 0.01pc of the revenues it booked through its UK-based business.
The BBC are obviously very busy just now and haven’t picked up on this story yet.
Just imagine if the head of Vodaphone had said this:
‘To do well in business you should remember you are a moral being and that morality matters….ethics are crucial in business….and there are two reasons [for that]….firstly it’s just right, and secondly if you act morally you will treat people the right way’.
The BBC would be quoting that back with glee and demanding to know why if he is such a moral being his company is paying such a low amount of tax.
Who said that?……Ralph Oppenheimer, chairman of the steel trading company Stemcor and Margaret Hodge’s brother…..so that’s Labour millionairess Margaret Hodge’s family business. Which pays hardly any tax in the UK.
No doubt Nicky Campbell will be running the phone in on Monday morning as they normally do with Big Business tax avoidance schemes like Vodafone’s or Google’s…..or do we have to wait for Occupy to get in touch with Paul Mason and ‘guide’ his decision over what to broadcast on Newsnight? If Newsnight has a future.
But! Labour tax avoidance good (Miliband both, Blair , i think even the unions offer advice on it) , non labourtax avoidance a hanging offence!
But like Scott said yesterday on the ‘Katty got her tongue’thread
“Context is everything” apparently
And the hypocrisy keeps coming. Miliband very quiet this weekend. Is there a trade union march on somewhere?
Don’t you mean ‘sponsored walk’?
thought there would at least have been a demand for an enquiry
he seems to issue such demands on an almost daily basis
I can think of 25+ reasons they wont be seeking an enquiry just yet
But Phil is right the labour party have
been 2X+quite about this latest development
I suppose Ed could be at a family reunion.
“The BBC are obviously very busy just now and haven’t picked up on this story yet.”
Given their current focus on child abuse, if they search on ‘Margaret Hodge’ they might just think her current financial stance is nowhere near as bad as what happened during her time at Islington.
Wasn’t Hodge the Culture Minister over the BBC a while back?
Yes was Children’s Minister under Balir as well.
Expect that was due to all the experience she gained at Islington Council…..
Bullseye! Two reasons they they won’t be asking her to comment on either story now. Never damage Labour, it’s the Toriez wot are asking for it.
And displaying that noble trait of self-preservation-at-all-costs so beloved of her Labour colleagues and other fellow-lefties-in-a-pickle at the BBC, she is even prepared to skewer her nearest and dearest, in this case her own family:
“Clearly, I have asked them the question,” said Mrs Hodge. “They have always promised that they do absolutely nothing to avoid tax. I would be very mad if I found out differently.”
Taking bets now on whether she finds out differently.
Aha, Podge Hodge plays the Entwhistle defence. “I didn’t know.”
Ha!
I will add that to the MacShane defence
– yes I did [insert anything you like here] but as the people who reported me were fascists I am therefore innocent and should not have to defend myself!
Here’s another story the BBC probably won’t cover – especially as it smells of a BBC cover-up….
See this link: http://tinyurl.com/arorzt6
Good link. The impartiality of our judiciary, eh? ‘climate change deniers
And then we kid oursleves we live in an open and fair democracy. The eco-socialists have permeated every fibre of public life, like a dry rot not even a 10 megaton dose of New Improved Nuclear Cuprinol could kill off.
Not wishing to blow my own trumpet too much, I mentioned the arrangements whereby Hodge has lived a life of luxury at her late father’s and the taxpayers’ expense on this B-BBC thread in July this year. Quite why the MSM has taken so long to latch onto Hodge’s massive hypocrisy I’ve little idea but incompetence (together with, in the case of the BBC if it does eventually mention it, bias) comes to mind.
BTW, just because Stemcor had a large revenue does not mean that it had a gigantic profit – or any profit at all. Indeed, as its statement says , this company is a trading company (ie it buys and sells; it doesn’t manufacture) in a highly competitive industry: if its taxable profits exceed 1% of its revenue I would be both surprised and impressed. Again, the MSM (yes even including the Telegraph!) is taking a cheap populist shot at the private sector based on wilful ignorance of both the principles and law of corporate taxation.
Yes, £163,000 tax on £65m seems low but without knowing things like losses brought forward, available Capital Allowances etc., there simply isn’t enough information to criticise.
But isn’t it all about hypocrisy? The large corporations, that Hodge has been gunning for, have also done nothing wrong (legally speaking) but, if you want to make socialist capital out of “morally wrong” tax arrangements, then you’d better make sure that you are not part of family firm employing similar arrangements. The same rule should apply at the BBC, people in glasshouses (Jimmy Carr)…etc
Hodge has had an interesting career. Islington council comes to mind.
She was pretty tight with Hattie Harperson in those glorious Islington days too.
Ewwww.
Oh, I see what you mean…
Which Stemcor, there seem to be quite a few companies that start Stemcor, 24 in fact. Anyone got a Companies House online account?
Hattie &Patty at Liberty supporting PIE, Maggie at Islington in a position to help – what could possibly go wrong?
Look up “Liberty” or NCCL in Wikipedia. You know, Shami’s lot now. Makes for an interesting read.
Here you go…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_%28pressure_group%29
Believe it or not I quite agree that her ommission is odd. No great loss. Always found her a hypocrite from GLC days. However she did a good job cleansing Dagenham of BNP scum.
“cleansing Dagenham of BNP scum. ”
Beyond parody
That would be the BNP scum that were right about:
The islamification of the UK?
The scandal, and consequential cover up on numerous occasions of Muslim peado gangs?
Were right about McShane over his false invoices?
Christ-on-a-bike, if only all political parties had the decency to tell the truth as the BNP…they are a damn sight more truthful than the BBC, and that is a fact.
(No, not a supporter, but when they are right, they are unequivocally right)
I’d loved to see Hampstead and Islington cleansed of Socialist scum.
Welcome back.
I love the sound of Jackboots in the morning.
Maybe Prole had just come back from partying with Ed Balls
Michael Crick has a piece here:
http://blogs.channel4.com/michael-crick-on-politics/a-roasting-for-starbucks-but-a-grilling-for-hodge/1915
Stemcor’s response is pretty strong. And Hodge’s defence too. I don’t think there’s a story here, certainly not about Hodge’s culpability.
And you believe her. Of course.
Move along, nothing to see, let’s draw a line etc etc
I don’t think Hodge is “culpable” of anything except being a hypocritical worm and an enabler – or rather, to use a favourite BBC word, denier – of nasty goings-on in Islington children’s homes. However, she is always treated in the BBC studios (and, to be fair elsewhere too) as some kind of paragon – and worthy of respectful attention – because she’s both Labour and landed up heading the Commons Public Accounts committee. The same goes for Vaz who heads the Home Affairs committee. That these two have become influential in what remains of democratic accountability in our legislature is both tragic and disgraceful.
Unfortunately AFAIAA currently you won’t hear a breath of criticism on the BBC about either of these two or the process which brought this scum to the surface of our political life. I’m sure there are reams of stuff about, for instance, Vaz’s difficulties with accounting and other matters in the BBC archives but facts are never enough. “Facts” have to be brought into the light of day so that what people like Vaz and Hodge get up to in their daily jobs can be seen in context. “Context” is not one of the strengths of BBC analysis when there are smears to be administered to those disliked by the BBC and issues to be discussed where the BBC’s agenda is being pursued.
There’s more facts to come out however. With Hodge it’s one of those cases of the accusers being more guilty than the accused. Not illegal but if we are talking morals, Stemcor has an operation in the tax haven of Guernsey and the UK business is loaded with £500m of debt reducing its UK corporation tax bill compared with them financing locally. No different to Starbucks which she’s happy to encourage boycotting