The Labour Party has doubled down on its controversial campaign against Rishi Sunak with an advert lashing out at his wife’s use of the non-dom tax loophole.
In its latest poster targeting the prime minister, Labour accused Mr Sunak of “raising taxes for working people” while his family “benefitted from the non-dom tax loophole.”
Non-dom status hit the headlines last year afterThe Independent revealed that Rishi Sunak’s multi-millionaire wife Akshata Murty held the status.
Mr Sunak called the reports about his wife “unpleasant smears” at the time, though she ultimately gave up the advantage.
“The Tories have raised taxes 24 times since 2019, leaving the British people facing the highest tax burden in 70 years,” Labour’s poster reads. It added: “They refuse to close the non-dom tax loophole. A Labour government would freeze your council tax this year, paid for by a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants.”
The party sparked uproar last week with an advert claiming Mr Sunak does not think child sex abusers should go to prison. The campaign has been branded “gutter politics” and sparked complaints from many of Sir Keir’s own MPs.
But the Labour leader has refused to back down, writing in the Daily Mail that he stands by “every word” of the adverts so far.
Other posters claimed Mr Sunak believes adults convicted of possessing a gun with intent to harm should not go to prison. Labour also shared an ad suggesting the PM does not believe thieves should be punished.
Nearly half of Starmer’s team haven’t shared the ads on social media and only two members of have shared all three of the attack ads.
Of the 31 members of Labour’s shadow cabinet, 13 (or 42%) have not shared any of the party’s controversial attack ads criticising Rishi Sunak’s record on tackling crime, nor his Mail article standing by them.
And it is preparing to go further in the coming days by accusing Mr Sunak of effectively “decriminalising” rape.
But its latest poster focuses on the rising cost of living and follows a memo sent by Sir Keir to his shadow cabinet saying “working people have paid the price for Tory mistakes and Tory choices”.
Sir Keir said: “Rishi Sunak is the chief architect of choices prioritising the wealthiest and of the government’s failure to get a grip of the economy and get growth going.
“The voters must know that Rishi Sunak’s fingerprints are all over their struggling household budgets.”
He added that, with 24 days until the local elections, the controversial campaign has “excellent progress on exposing the government’s failures on crime”. And the Labour leader repeated that he makes “no apologies at all” for the adverts.
Mr Sunak faced a backlash last year after the Independent revealed his wife Akshata Murty claimed non-dom status, lowering her tax bill.
Non-dom tax status typically applies to someone who was born overseas, spends much of their time in the UK but still considers another country to be their permanent residence or “domicile”.
In Ms Murty’s case, she claimed that the UK is not her permanent residence and reportedly avoided up to £20m in UK tax. She was paying £30,000 a year to maintain the status. Ms Murty is a fashion designer and the daughter a billionaire entrepreneur behind Indian software giant Infosys.
Citizenship of an individual living in the UK is irrelevant when it comes to non-dom status as it is possible for a UK citizen, or someone born in the UK, to claim they are a non-dom.
Ms Murty has since given up the “remittance basis” which lets non-doms shield their overseas income from the UK taxman.
Labour has called on the government to scrap non-dom status altogether, labelling it “outdated and unfair”. The party has also pledged to abolish the tax status if it is elected.
A Tory source called Labour’s latest advert “the height of hypocrisy”. “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,” they said.
