Boris Johnson revives call for Tory MPs to publish tax returns
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Version 0 of 1. Boris Johnson has shown his unerring ability to cause mischief in the Tory party by reviving his call for politicians to publish their tax returns and calling on David Cameron to make him a key member of his EU negotiating team. Speaking at the end of his trip to the US, the London mayor challenged George Osborne by saying that politicians should follow his example and publish their tax returns as he did during the 2012 London mayoral contest. Johnson told the Sunday Times: “I’ve said so before. I put it out there. In America you have to. I don’t see any particular problem with it myself. It was all transparent in 2012. Everyone could see what I was paying.” The mayor made his remarks at a sensitive time for the prime minister over Tory party funding. Johnson also knows full well that the chancellor, who had indicated that he was relaxed about publishing his tax return, told the Sunday Times last month that the process was proving too tricky. Osborne said: “There are genuine issues around taxpayer confidentiality and how it would work in practice. You see it as a feature of some American campaigns but I think there would be quite a lot of practical difficulties. There are no plans at this point. The income I receive is publicly declared.” The prime minister is still officially “relaxed” about publishing his tax return after saying in 2012 that he would be prepared to break new ground in this area. But in tactics worthy of Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes Minister, the he has spent the last three years saying that it is a complicated issue that needs to be examined with care. In the main thrust of his interview with the Sunday Times at the end of his trip to the US, Johnson indicated that he would finally revoke his US citizenship to give him a free run at Downing Street when David Cameron stands down. Johnson was born in New York City in 1964 which means he holds joint US and UK citizenship. But there is no bar on dual citizens becoming prime minister. Andrew Bonar Law, who was born in New Brunswick in 1858, served as UK prime minister between 1922-23. The US has stricter rules – only US citizens born in the US are eligible to stand for president. Johnson said: “The reason I’m thinking I probably will want to make a change is that my commitment is, and always has been, to Britain. It’s an accident of birth that has left me with this thing. I’ve got to find a way of sorting it out.” Aides indicated that Johnson was keen to ensure that he no longer had to fill out a US tax return. All US citizens, even those who live abroad and have no ties to the US, are obliged to file their returns. The US tax authorities can impose taxes on earnings or capital gains outside the US as Johnson found out when he recently had to pay about £30,000 over the sale of his house in north London. Johnson showed his ability to cause trouble with his call to be given a place in Cameron’s European Union negotiating team. He said: “I have strong views about how a renegotiation could happen. I’d be very happy to help. I think there’s a deal to be done. If I wasn’t happily lashed to my oar as mayor of London, I would do it [full time].” Aides said that Johnson would ask to be given the role of lead negotiator if he did not still have a further year to serve as London mayor. They say that his expertise from his time as the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent in the 1990s would be useful to the Tories in the EU renegotiations. But Andrew Gimson, Johnson’s biographer, said that he made up many of his stories in Brussels. In one of his most famous tales, Johnson claimed that the European commission’s Berlaymont headquarters was to be blown up in a controlled explosion. The building was refurbished but was never going to be blown up because it was riddled with asbestos. Douglas Hurd, who was then foreign secretary, complained to the Telegraph about Johnson. Charles Moore, the highly eurosceptic deputy editor of the Telegraph, told Gimson: “Boris was always a bit vulnerable because his stories weren’t always wholly accurate.” |