Labour has defended its controversial attack adverts targeting the Prime Minister’s wife — with a shadow minister insisting the party would not be “slapped around”.
A new campaign makes reference to Rishi Sunak’s multi-millionaire wife Akshata Murthy previously holding non-dom status, which allows UK residents who have a permanent home outside the country to avoid paying tax on foreign income.
In its latest poster, Labour accused Mr Sunak of “raising taxes for working people” while his family “benefited from the tax loophole”.
The campaign, which comes ahead of the local elections next month, also blames the prime minister for crashing the economy and for soaring council tax and mortgage rates.
Ads will also focus on crime and prosecution rates, and see Mr Sunak accused of “effectively decriminalising rape”.
Labour shadow chief secretary to the treasury Pat McFadden suggested his party is being criticised for taking a similar attack lines to those often adopted by Conservative politicians.
He told LBC: “The Labour Party is often allocated a role... that it will be slapped around in an election campaign.
“I listen to Rishi Sunak standing up at Prime Minister’s Questions week after week saying Keir Starmer is on the side of people traffickers, he’s a liberal Lefty lawyer on the side of criminals and all the rest of it... and we are not going to play the role allocated to us.”
When asked whether it was “fair” to attack the PM’s wife, Mr McFadden added: “I believe she benefited from non-dom status.”
Mr Sunak has previously called the reports about his wife’s former tax status “unpleasant smears”.
A Tory party spokesman accused Labour of “hypocrisy” after it was revealed Sir Keir Starmer benefits from a “bespoke pension scheme” that means he is exempt from paying tax on pension savings over £1 million.
He added: “Rishi Sunak has a plan to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt. Sir Keir only has a plan to play politics on Twitter.”
