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Nearly half of Starmer's team didn't share any ads and only two members shared all three Labor has stepped up its controversial campaign against Rishi Sunak with an ad exposing his wife's use of the no-dom tax loophole. In its latest poster to the prime minister, the Labor Party accused Sunak of 'raising workers' taxes' while his family 'benefited from the non-Dom tax loophole'.
Mr. Sunak at the time called the reports about his wife a "nasty smear", though she eventually relinquished the benefit.
“The Tories have raised taxes 24 times since 2019, leaving the British people facing the biggest tax burden in 70 years,” the Labor poster read. He added: “They refuse to close the non-dom tax loophole. A Labor government would freeze its council tax this year, paid for by a royal tax on windfall profits from oil and gas giants.
The party caused quite a stir last week with an announcement that Sunak does not believe child sex offenders should go to jail. The campaign was branded as "gutter politics" and led to complaints from many of Sir Keir's MPs.
But the Labor leader has refused to back down, writing in the Daily Mail that he stands by "every word" of the announcements so far.
Other posters claimed that Sunak believed that adults convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to harm should not go to jail. Labor also shared an announcement suggesting that the prime minister does not believe thieves should be punished.
Nearly half of Starmer's team did not share the ads on social media, and only two members shared all three attack ads.
Of Labor's 31 shadow cabinet members, 13 (or 42%) did not share any of the party's controversial attack ads criticizing Rishi Sunak's crime-fighting record, or his article in the Mail .
And he is preparing to go further in the coming days by accusing Sunak of effectively "decriminalizing" rape.
But his latest poster focuses on the rising cost of living and follows a memo sent by Sir Keir to his Shadow Cabinet saying "workers have paid the price for mistakes and conservative decisions".
Sir Keir said: “Rishi Sunak is the main architect of the richest first options and the government's failure to control the economy and stimulate growth.
"Voters need to know that Rishi Sunak's fingerprints are all over their struggling family budgets."
He added that 24 days before the local elections, the controversial campaign has "great progress in exposing the government's failures in criminal matters." And the Labor leader repeated that he apologized "not at all" for the ads.
Sunak faced backlash last year after The Independent revealed that his wife Akshata Murty had claimed non-dom status, lowering her tax bill.
Non-dom tax status generally applies to someone who is born abroad, spends much of their time in the UK but still regards another country as their permanent residence or 'home'.
In the case of Ms Murty, she claimed the UK was not her permanent home and she would have avoided up to £20m in UK tax. He paid £30,000 a year to maintain his status. Ms. Murty is a fashion designer and the daughter of a billionaire entrepreneur behind the Indian software giant Infosys.
The citizenship of someone living in the UK is irrelevant to non-dom status, as it is possible for a UK citizen, or someone born in the UK, to claim that they are non-dom.
Ms Murty has since waived the 'refund basis' which allows non-doms to protect their overseas earnings from the UK tax authorities.
Labor has called on the government to scrap non-dom status altogether, calling it "outdated and unfair". The party has also pledged to eliminate tax status if elected.
A Conservative source called the latest Labor announcement "the height of hypocrisy". “Rishi Sunak has a plan to cut inflation in half, grow the economy and reduce debt. Sir Keir has only one plan to play politics on Twitter," they said.
Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy (Ben Stansall/PA)
PA wire
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