Farage's £250k 'Robin Hood tax' is a free ride for non-doms, says reader
Nigel Farage's so-called 'Robin Hood Tax' is an outrageous, Sheriff of Nottingham-style con (Metro, Tue).
The Reform UK 'Britannia Card' idea is that non-doms, instead of paying tax annually like the rest of us, make a one-off payment of £250,000, which 'Hood' Farage promises will be used to benefit 'the poor'.
According to the Chartered Institute of Taxation (using figures from HMRC) the tax yield from non-doms for the year ending April 5, 2022, averaged out at £120,000 each.
So Farage's one-off payment amounts to just over two years of tax at 2021-2022 rates followed by a permanent free ride at the expense of other taxpayers.
Public services, already cut to the bone, will get even worse and the poor will suffer to support the wealthy. Paul Johnson, Ilford
Sir Keir Starmer has described Palestine Action group throwing paint over fighter planes at RAF Brize Norton (Metro, Tue) as 'disgraceful'.
He is right, the lack of security that allowed it to happen is indeed appalling and, as the leader of the government that takes responsibility for it, the buck clearly stops with him.
With his new-found humility, the prime minister could perhaps now thank the organisation that exposed the weakness.
What if they had been terrorists? Phil Goater, Sunbury-on-Thames
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How do you find a secret base in Iran? You look for the building guarded by a man with an AK-47. How do you find a secret base in Israel? You look for the building guarded by a man with an Uzi machine gun.
How do you find a secret base in the UK? You look for the building guarded by nobody – they're all asleep and the personnel officer is in charge. Jeff Sutton, Erdington
Dennis Fitzgerald (MetroTalk, Tue) claims we 'can't bomb people into peace, only into surrender'. He's wrong.
When we bombed Nazi Germany into surrender, it led to the birth of a peaceful and democratic country. Why should Iran be any different?
Most Iranians hate the murderous regime that stole their country 46 years ago. Israel understands this. That's why the Israeli Air Force targeted Iran's notorious Evin prison – not to harm civilians but to help those oppressed by the Ayatollahs' regime escape and get a chance at freedom. David Frencel, London
Are you able to consider this witticism in keeping with the recent 'doctor jokes' theme for your excellent newspaper? More Trending
Ronnie O'Sullivan went to the doctor recently and said, 'Doctor, I feel like a snooker ball.' The doc replied, 'Get to the back of the cue.' Stevie 'Whirlwind' Duggers, Sheffield
Another doctor joke. I went to the doctor today to get a vaccine. Nervous, I asked, 'Is it going to hurt?' The doctor said, 'It will hurt a bit today but tomorrow will be fine.'
Immediately I replied, 'Can we reschedule for tomorrow, then?' Pedro, Hammersmith
MORE: The Metro daily cartoon by Guy Venables
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Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
John Torode looks serious in first public appearance since MasterChef sacking
John Torode has been spotted in public for the first time since he was sacked as a presenter on BBC series MasterChef. The TV presenter and chef, 60, was removed from the cooking competition alongside his co-host Gregg Wallace, also 60, earlier this month. Wallace stepped away from MasterChef in November last year as an in-depth investigation was conducted into the historical allegations regarding his behaviour on the show. It was found that 45 out of 83 allegations were upheld following the investigation, with Wallace saying he was 'deeply sorry' for his past actions but insisted the most serious allegations were unproven. Days later, it emerged that co-host Torode's contract would not be renewed after nine complaints were lodged against him – among which was a claim that he 'used the N-word' on two separate occasions. Torode's removal as presenter – which was confirmed on July 14 – came in spite of his insistence that he had no memory of either incident ever taking place. Now, just over a week later, he's been spotted out in public for the first time since it was revealed that he was also investigated as part of the Silkins report. He was spotted on Wednesday July 23 on his 60th birthday visiting an organic food store near his home in north London. A source told The Sun that John had decided to have 'a quiet birthday meal' with his wife Lisa Faulkner and some close friends, adding: 'It's been an incredibly difficult time for him.' Accompanying Torode was his family dog, Rory, a schnauzer, with the TV host holding Rory's lead in one hand and a reusable blue and white shopping bag in the other. He opted for casual clothes, donning a navy blue t-shirt and matching blue jogging trousers, completing his look with black and white trainers. In the images taken on Wednesday, Torode appeared not to acknowledge the photographers, choosing instead to carry on with his day as normal. Despite the revelations of the investigation, the BBC has said that the series of MasterChef filmed before Wallace and Torode's sackings will air as normal. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A BBC spokesperson said: 'After careful consideration and consultation with the contestants, we have decided to broadcast the amateur series of MasterChef on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from August 6. 'MasterChef is an amazing competition which is life-changing for the amateur chefs taking part. The focus of it has always been their skill and their journey.' More Trending The spokesperson revealed that it had 'not been an easy decision in the circumstances' and acknowledged that not everyone would agree with the final result. They added: 'In showing the series, which was filmed last year, it in no way diminishes our view of the seriousness of the upheld findings against both presenters. 'We have been very clear on the standards of behaviour that we expect of those who work at the BBC or on shows made for the BBC.' View More » Calling it the 'right thing to do' for the cooks to be 'properly recognised', the BBC did qualify that the fate of the celebrity series and two Christmas special episodes featuring Torode was uncertain. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: I love Sherlock but a reboot would be the worst idea ever MORE: Line of Duty star's drama that will 'seize your soul' launches on BBC MORE: Chloe Ayling: 'I can't believe I'm still talking about being kidnapped eight years later'
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
James Cleverly: I like Farage but Reform are a one-man band
Where many Tories view Nigel Farage as a menacing bogeyman, Sir James Cleverly is prepared to admit that he likes him. 'I've met him a couple of times,' Cleverly says. 'He's fun, he's funny, he's interesting. He's a very, very good communicator. He's very good at holding fort. He's a very clubbable person.' But for Cleverly, a Tory big beast who this week returned to the shadow cabinet, Farage has an inherent limitation: there is only one of him. 'The challenge he's got is that he's the only one in his party that you can describe in those terms,' Cleverly says. 'It's fine for what they've been doing at the moment, which is having him as the lead singer and everyone else if basically the backing band. But if you're going to be taken seriously as a party of government, that's nowhere near enough. As much as he's smart and funny and talented, he's not omnipresent.' • Shadow cabinet reshuffle: Badenoch returns Cleverly to Tory front bench Who, Cleverly rhetorically asks, are Farage's shadow chancellor, shadow home secretary and shadow defence secretary? 'The fact is he hasn't got any of them. That's nowhere near good enough to be taken seriously as an alternative party of government. The British people deserve better. He's their biggest advantage and their biggest disadvantage.' Farage 'crumbles' when pushed for details, Cleverly adds. 'We're now seeing that as soon as he's asked even for an order of magnitude explanation to the cost of some of his ideas he totally falls apart. When he's trying to outbid Labour on welfare spending, when you talk to him about how he's going to do that whilst also cutting taxes, he falls apart.' Cleverly was the big name in Kemi Badenoch's mini-reshuffle this week. Last October he dropped out of the Tory leadership contest after being bested by a margin of only four votes, going from runaway favourite to also-ran in an instant. Some of his supporters later admitted that they were so confident Cleverly would make it to the final pairing that they backed one of his rivals, a move designed to improve his chances of winning the overall contest. That turned out to be a catastrophic error. Cleverly decided to take a break. 'I'd come off the back of being foreign secretary, home secretary,' he says. 'During much of the previous couple of years Susie [his wife] was going through her cancer treatment, which actually impacted me more than I realised at the time. Then we went into an incredibly bruising general election campaign and instead of taking a breather over the summer I threw myself into a leadership campaign. At this point I realised that I did actually need a bit of time, a bit more time with Susie, a bit of time with the family.' Did he enjoy his time off? In fact it was a 'pretty turbulent' period, Cleverly says. At the beginning of the year one of his closest friends from his army days died after developing oesophageal cancer. 'In the early part of the new year I was with him when he died,' Cleverly says. 'The weekend after, my brother-in-law — Susie's younger brother — had a catastrophic heart attack and he died. And then, just over a week ago, my father died. So the first half of this year has been pretty full on.' When Cleverly was approached by the Conservatives' chief whip last week, he decided it was time for a return. He is now shadowing Angela Rayner's community and housing brief. 'I genuinely thought Labour would mess up,' he says. 'But they were messing up at such a rate [it] meant we had to get back on the front foot more quickly than perhaps anyone had envisaged. We didn't have the time in opposition to build up slowly and gently.' It does not look good for the Tories. Under Badenoch they have gone backwards in the polls and there have been complaints in the shadow cabinet about her leadership and her strategy. Some shadow ministers think she will be ousted after November, when the one-year protection period shielding her from a leadership challenge expires. 'Let's not do the whole kind of, 'Throw a leader under the bus and see if it works this time',' Cleverly says. 'It hasn't worked the last three or four times we've done it. My strong advice is [that] our effort, our time, our energy, our focus, is much, much better directed at making sure Kemi succeeds as leader. Kemi won fair and square. She's got strong ideas, she is a staunch Conservative.' • Emma Duncan: James Cleverly's homecoming is smart move for Tories Some of the attacks on Badenoch have been vituperative. The New Statesman reported that some Tories believe she is pulling her punches on illegal migration because she is an 'anchor baby', a term used in the United States to refer to people who ensure their children are born in a country in order to gain residency. Badenoch has said she was born in the UK because her mother, who is from Nigeria, came to get medical care at a private hospital. 'The idea of living in the UK and moving to the UK was not something that was at the forefront,' she has said. Cleverly says the attacks originate on the left and highlights the abuse he has suffered because his mother came to Britain from Sierra Leone. 'There's a particularly pernicious type of left-wing racism which rears its ugly head surprisingly regularly,' he says. 'This is one of the things I find really, really, really unpalatable. I had this when I was home secretary, when I was tough on migration. And people said, 'You're such a hypocrite to try to crack down on small boats because your mum was an immigrant'. 'Which implied that in the eyes of some people all immigrants are the same. That somehow my mum … playing by the rules, filling in the forms, joining the queue and spending a whole working life in the NHS, that somehow she is the same as someone that's paid a criminal to get here on a small boat. That I find incredibly distasteful. 'And sadly, it's unsurprising that Kemi is having these kind of accusations flung at her. I know she has got a bit of an armoured hide when it comes to this kind of comment, so I can't imagine she's staying awake over comments like that.' The Tories, he says, are still experiencing the wrath of voters after their 'comprehensive' defeat at the general election. 'You talk to voters [and] last year's general election feels a heartbeat away. They are still angry with us about the things they were angry with us about at the general election. There is a residual frustration with us and a newfound frustration with the Labour Party.' Cleverly's critics often call him a centrist. They point to his position on the European Court of Human Rights — he has repeatedly said it is no 'silver bullet' — and his criticism of the 'neo-Luddites' on the right opposed to green technology and who think that climate change campaigners are 'scaremongering'. Cleverly says those critics are wrong and describes himself as a 'Thatcherite Reaganite'. His leadership platform included a 'really significant reduction in welfare spending' and committing the party to spending 3 per cent on defence in government. Badenoch has committed to scrapping the net zero 2050 target, a position Cleverly agrees with. 'When we, as a party, were making that commitment on that timescale, it was prior to Russia's invasion [of] Ukraine, prior to much of the current conflict in the Middle East,' he says. 'The timetables that we set out before those major events are no longer tenable. 'We shouldn't be capping wells in the North Sea. We shouldn't be putting lead in our own saddles when it comes to competing on a global market. We shouldn't be throwing heavy industry under a bus. But while making sure we protect ourselves here, we should still be looking to take full advantage of the direction of travel in green technologies and energy technologies.' Badenoch is widely expected to announce at the autumn's party conference that she is committing the party to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). She has commissioned a review by Lord Wolfson, the shadow attorney-general, to look at the issue in the meantime. Will Cleverly back leaving the ECHR? 'The lesson we learnt from Brexit is if you want to make a big change like that, you have to have a delivery plan,' he says. 'Boring as this may sound, I'm actually going to wait for this incredibly smart and thoughtful person to do the analysis before I make a final judgment.' He is concerned about 'judicial activism', however. 'There are tensions that are being stoked because of perverse decisions by the immigration tribunal, through the judicial review process. What message does that send to people that have actually done the right thing and voted?' Cleverly says he feels sympathy for those protesting peacefully outside migrant hotels. 'I understand why they're so very, very angry,' he says. 'I understand why they look to the government that made a whole load of bold promises, who thought it was all going to be so terribly easy, and have let those communities down. Where I absolutely do not have any sympathy is for people who travel across the country to try to turn peaceful community protests into a violent, clickbait protest. Hijacking community concerns is something that should be responded to forcefully by the courts, by the police.' Surely the Conservatives were part of the problem? The failure to stop small boats crossing the Channel led to tens of thousands of people being housed in asylum hotels. 'I completely recognise that this very visible and very alarming spike in illegal migration … shot up while we were in government,' he says. 'The focus we had on this was relentless. We were willing to try a whole range of things. And that's in part where the Rwanda plan came from, looking at doing things really fundamentally different, as well as beefing up the National Crime Agency's work in Europe, disrupting criminal gangs, arresting people, deporting people.' • Badenoch says she would copy drastic cuts of Argentina's president Labour, he says, showed an 'appalling lack of planning and foresight' and its decision to cancel the plan to sent migrants to Rwanda was 'absolutely toxic'. On housing, Cleverly says he wants to make it easier to 'go up a little bit' by building new levels on existing buildings, as well as ensuring there is 'greater density' in cities with good-quality housing. He also could look at property taxes to help people get on the ladder. His overall message is that the Tories do not need to 'reinvent the wheel'. 'What we need to do is update the way we present that to a new generation of voters,' he says. 'But conservative principles are sound and we don't need to drift away from those conservative principles. And that's the reason we've been such a successful political party.' However, the Tories cannot afford to be passive and must go after the voters who have defected to other parties. 'We can't just rely on them to come back, we've got to go and get them,' he says. 'We need to be hunters, not farmers. We need to make the case. People voted for other political parties for a reason. And we need to go get them back.' Kemi Badenoch of Robert Jenrick? Kemi. We have got to give her a chance. Nigel Farage or Keir Starmer? Neither. They can go in a room together and talk about their ineptitude. British & Irish Lions or the English cricket team? Lions. I'm a rugby player. Opposition or government? Government. David Cameron always said a day in government is better than a year in opposition.
Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
Trump touches down in Scotland for unofficial visit
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Donald Trump has landed in the UK for a five-day trip around Scotland. The US president touched down at Prestwick Airport at 8.28pm this evening and was met by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray. He then headed off to his Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire. The visit has been described as a 'private' trip, before he returns for an official state visit in September. He will travel to golf courses across Scotland while also fitting in high-stakes meetings with the Prime Minister and the Scottish First Minister. Trump will then fly out of Scotland on Tuesday. The US President has a personal connection to Scotland. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis before moving to New York aged 18. He is expected to open up a new 18-hole course dedicated to his mother at his Menie resort. Trump also owns the Turnberry hotel and three linked courses in Ayrshire, which he bought for about £40million in 2014. The US President has made several visits to Scotland in the past, often to visit his late mother's home or to play golf on one of his courses. Other than visiting his two golf courses in Scotland, Trump is due to meet Keir Starmer in Aberdeen on Monday. Trump's press secretary said the meeting was intended to 'refine the great trade deal that was brokered between the United States and the United Kingdom'. Scottish First Minister John Swinney has also said he is meeting the US president. Swinney publicly backed Kamala Harris for the presidency last year, but Trump called him a 'good man' before embarking on the trip. He plans to raise a number of domestic and international issues including tariffs on Scotch whisky and conflict in the Middle East. Trump is also due to meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The US and EU are currently locked in trade negotiations over tariffs, with agreement reportedly close to being reached. Trump's visit could strengthen the relationship between Starmer and the US president, as they look set to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine. Conflict in the Middle East could also take centre stage, just days after France announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state. Starmer said on Thursday the Palestinian people have the 'inalienable' right to a state, while Trump criticised Macron's plan, saying it 'doesn't carry any weight'. The US president will also be hoping the trip brings him some time out of the spotlight back home. A political crisis has erupted over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and seen Trump take heat from his usually loyal MAGA supporters. The president once promised to release the files, but the Justice Department and FBI since announced that 'no incriminating 'client list'' existed. It was then sensationally reported by The Wall Street Journal that Trump's name appears in the files. There will be a 'festival of resistance', organised by the Scottish wing of the Stop Trump Coalition. More Trending This will kick off a day after his arrival – on Saturday – and will be held in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dumfries. An Ipsos poll in March found that about 70% of Scots have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, while 18% have a favorable opinion. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The protests will be the prelude for even larger demonstrations in London planned by the group when Trump lands on his state visit in September. There are also plans to relaunch the Donald Trump baby balloon, which became a symbol of protests against the controversial leader on his first state visit in July 2018. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Trump says 'I'll give you a list' of Epstein associates and 'I'm allowed' to pardon Maxwell MORE: Donald Trump's Scotland visit branded 'cynical circus' by his nemesis in land battle MORE: Starmer should give Trump a warm welcome – then a £14m bill
