Keir Starmer’s multimillionaire sugar daddy Lord Alli (and sugar grandaddy to the prime minister’s son for that matter) is set to make hundreds of thousands of pounds from a tax haven-based investment firm – that he hasn’t officially declared.
Once again, independent outlet openDemocracy dug up the dirt the corporate media is failing to unearth, despite their enormous resources. Of course, its new revelations on Alli’s undeclared business holdings add to its vital exposé on Labour’s stonking £4m donation from tax haven-registered hedge fund Quadrature.
Lord Alli: follow the money… to a tax haven
Amidst the storm of corporate media fanfare over the Lord Alli freebies affair, openDemocracy has been asking the right questions. Specifically, where is the wealthy donor’s money coming from?
As it turned out, it all stinks to high tax haven, because:
When openDemocracy reviewed Alli’s register of interests last month, we found he had declared a chairmanship of 450 PLC, an investment firm based offshore in Jersey. This role does not make the peer any money.
But we also found he had not declared that he had been a director of 450 PLC’s subsidiary firm, Mac (BVI) Limited, since April 2023.
Crucially, it found that:
financial accounts say Alli holds so-called “incentive shares” in the firm.
The documents also note that while Alli does not receive any directorship fees at present, should an acquisition be completed while he is a director, he will receive “a one-off transaction fee of an amount equal to £25,000 per calendar month elapsed between the date of his appointment and a platform acquisition being completed”.
This means if an acquisition were made this month, Alli appears to be entitled to £425,000 in directorship fees as part of a long-term incentive arrangement.
However, openDemocracy’s find wasn’t the end of it either. When it pointed this out to Lord Alli, he feigned it was just an oversight.
I guess it’s easy to forget your directorship of a tax haven-registered firm when you’re declaring all the pies you’ve got your grubby crony millions from. After all, Starmer forgot a few tens of thousands of pounds worth of freebies from Alli in his register too. Donor drops in the ocean so easily slip the mind of slimy establishment career politicians it seems. However, this is arguably a much bigger revelation:
This isn’t just another “failure to declare” story, it’s a Labour peer failing to declare a tax haven interest – what’s the party’s excuse this time? https://t.co/pRxfCvkVuE
— Miles Greenwood (@oneevatatime) September 25, 2024
Now, Lord Alli has added it to the register – but as a non-financial interest. Funny then, that openDemocracy found he will be in for a £425,000 payout from the firm. Unsurprisingly, he brushed this off too, telling the outlet that:
The company has yet to make an acquisition. I don’t receive a fee and have no financial interest in the company until an acquisition is made.
He also said that when the company does turn a profit, it’ll pay tax in the UK. Naturally, he wants us to take him at his word for this.
Obviously, it’s a particularly suspicious error, given that it’s registered in the British Virgin Islands – practically a tax avoider’s heaven.
U-turn on tax avoidance ahead?
It all looks a lot like a prime minister taking backhanders from slippery multimillionaire tax avoider Lord Alli.
Don’t worry though, Labour is on the case.
As openDemocracy also pointed out, it has promised to be hot on tax avoiders. Foreign secretary’s David Lammy’s precise words to the House were that the government will go after them “with full vigour”. Though, we suspect it’s nothing another few tens of thousands of pounds and some designer frocks can’t turnaround. After all, Starmer knows a thing or two about giant, galling U-turns.
Now at least, it’s another we can clearly see coming – as sure as the new government’s meek mealy-mouthed policy promises follow money. Or you might say, as certain as sleaze follows Starmer and his cabinet of corporate capitalist cronies in donor-bought suits.
Featured image via the Canary
