A scoop from Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Telegraph. Ken Livingstone, Labour's candidate for Mayor of London who has the most extravagant rhetoric of class hatred of any politician in the country, has used a loophole to avoid £50,000 of tax.
Companies House show he earned £232,000 in 2009 the year following his defeat as Mayor of London.
But the money went through a company, Silveta Ltd, with Mr Livingstone and his then partner, now wife, Emma Beal, as the only shareholders. That meant he paid corporation tax at 20% or 21%, rather than income tax at up to 40%.
All quite legal. Good for him, some may say. Why not try to keep the tax bill to a minimum. But I think the snag for Mr Livingstone is that some may spot a degree of hypocrisy.
He has attacked tax avoiders saying:
“These rich b——- just don’t get it… No one should be allowed to vote in a British election, let alone sit in Parliament, unless they pay their full share of tax."