Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation

One could be forgiven for checking that yesterday wasn’t April 1st after waking up to the news that private equity tycoon and asset-stripper extraordinaire Philip Green has been appointed by David Cameron to head a Whitehall spending review. Green’s role will, ostensibly, be to identify inefficiencies and savings in government departments. In reality, Green will probably look to do to government what he has done to so many of the companies he has bought and sold – slash and burn.

Philip-Green Green is the multi-billionaire owner of the clothing retailer Arcadia, which includes Topshop and Dorothy Perkins. However, while he may be one of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs, owning an estimated 12% per cent of Britain’s high-street shops, his billions are the result of massive tax avoidance.

Ninety two per cent of Arcadia group is owned by Green’s wife, Tina, for tax purposes. Green spends most of his time in Monaco, a tax haven, and in 2005 his company paid a £1.2 billion dividend to Tina Green. The Treasury did not receive a penny because she is a Monaco resident.

Of course, despite being morally repugnant, tax evasion the Green way is not illegal. But, as Will Straw points out in the Guardian, ‘it is certainly a poor qualification for heading up a Whitehall “external efficiency review”’.

In 2006, the BBC’s Money Programme reported that Green and his family had saved themselves nearly £300 million the previous year by living partly in Monaco. Green has at least acknowledged that his family does not live in Britain, although he claims that his family has paid capital gains and corporation tax of between £300-400m over the past five years in the UK, although this is still a very small sum for a man estimated to be worth well over £4bn.

Few could deny that Green is a brilliantly skilled money-maker and Arcadia has recorded operating profits of between £250-300m in the last three years despite the downturn. But Green is also the Tories’ fourth so-called ‘government efficiency’ adviser after former BP boss Lord Browne was appointed in June “to improve efficiency in each department”, while Sir Peter Gershon and Dr Martin Read promised the Conservatives £12bn in efficiency savings before the election.

These conflicting egos, all doing the same job, are not likely to achieve anything.

Moreover, while it is unsurprising that the Lib-Con Government of millionaires should have appointed a billionaire to look for efficiency savings, the appointment is surely a PR disaster – for one thing Green is a forceful man with a shorter fuse than Colonel Gaddafi – and his appointment will undoubtedly increase Cabinet tensions, despite the warm accolades that were heaped on Green by Government ministers yesterday.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude praised Green’s “immense commercial experience”, adding that he had a “fantastic track record”. Meanwhile, Lib Dem Chief Secretary Danny Alexander claimed that Green’s review would help the government “totally rethink” the way it spends public money. Green will be supported by a team of civil servants and report directly to Maude and Alexander.

However, while his over-promoted colleague may be sanguine about this highly controversial appointment, it may push his Lib Dem colleague, business secretary Vince Cable, towards the door marked resignation. Cable was clearly not consulted on the appointment, and when interviewed on Friday, said “there’s a lot I could say on this, but I’d better miss this one out”, adding he was “tempted to comment, but I think I’d better not”.

Indeed, in November 2009, Cable strongly criticised Scottish first minister Alex Salmond when Salmond appointed Jim McColl, also a Monaco-based tax exile, as one of his economic advisors, stating that “there is growing intolerance of British companies and the super-rich who dodge taxes. Having an adviser who is also a tax exile is completely incompatible and totally unacceptable”. With Cable’s recent green paper on bank lending having been watered down by the Treasury so much as to be virtually meaningless, Green’s appointment may be the final straw.

Furthermore, the focus on what are, in relative terms, small government efficiency savings, is a further sign of the coalition’s short-sightedness. As Left Foot Forward’s Will Straw has pointed out, David Cameron wrote in The Sun this week that “benefit fraud is the first and the deepest cut we will make”, blithely ignoring the fact that there is just £1.5bn in benefit and tax credit fraud compared to an estimated £17bn of tax avoidance, evasion and non-payment identified in HMRC’s Protecting Tax Revenues report. In other words, tax dodging dwarfs welfare and tax credit fraud by a factor of more than 10 to one.

In this vein, Paul Kenny, the general secretary of the GMB, struck an appropriately sarcastic tone when he expressed his hope that Green would use his “experience and knowledge to help the government deal with tax avoidance schemes give the government good advice in closing the loopholes”; well said, Paul – but appointing a tax evader to look at ways to cut public spending must be second nature to a party that has spent the past decade being bankrolled by one.

http://twitter.com/houseoftwits/status/21137834464 House Of Twits

RT @leftfootfwd Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/maximmanchester/status/21137916610 Max

RT @houseoftwits: RT @leftfootfwd Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/vcurrentaffairs/status/21138236289 Veronica Walsh

PHILIP GREEN! Yegods! RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/acre56/status/21138266751 andy c

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/stuwhitt/status/21138291034 Stuart Whittingham

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/downtownfrank/status/21138352576 Frank McKenna

RT @Stuwhitt: RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/medavep/status/21138545070 David Pearce

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc < Jump ship Vince, jump jump!
http://twitter.com/emmacdoyle/status/21138647380 Emma Doyle

RT @VCurrentAffairs: PHILIP GREEN! Yegods! RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/drjonathanphd/status/21138973044 Jonathan Davies

RT @leftfootfwd Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc #ukpolitics #labour #ConDem
http://twitter.com/terrywassall/status/21139249524 Terry Wassall

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/duncanfwalker/status/21139346955 Duncan Walker

RT @leftfootfwd: Green is billionaire from asset-stripping private companies now he's Government's ‘Cuts Tsar’. http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/withinandbeyond/status/21139868801 Phil Ord

Don't think Coalition will last RT @leftfootfwd Green's appointment as 'cuts Tsar' drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/dd150907/status/21139902234 David Dunn

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/andynparsons/status/21140035259 Andy Parsons

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/riprap007/status/21140569854 Nicholas Ripley

Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/a3nTOw
http://twitter.com/delboy167/status/21140817583 Derek Brown

RT @riprap007: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/a3nTOw
http://twitter.com/teamretweetback/status/21140858041 Team Retweet Back

RT @riprap007: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/a3nTOw: RT @rip… http://bit.ly/daIHnu
Robert

No difference then Brown and Blair asking CBI (Digby Jones) boss to enter into politics is it, or even Sugar. Tax avoidance is illegal then, or is a legal way of not paying tax, something Blair and Brown did sod all to stop in fact they were happy to carry it on, is Blair avoiding tax now.

The sad fact is a lot of what the Tories used under Thatcher Blair and Brown agreed with especially Blair, so it’s a bit rich you lot moaning about it now.
http://twitter.com/matt0wen/status/21141206555 Matthew Owen

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
Matt

Not sure how any of the Lib Dems can look themselves in the mirror right now.
http://twitter.com/irbdavid/status/21141540094 Dave Andrews

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/aeuyHM
http://twitter.com/othertpa/status/21141901929 Other TaxPayers Alli

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/andy_s_64/status/21142900013 Andy Sutherland

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://twitter.com/drkmj/status/21142953472 DrKMJ

Greens appointment as cuts Tsar drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @leftfootfwd
http://twitter.com/anpa2001/status/21143069700 R Gordon

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @andy_s_64
http://twitter.com/andyholland01/status/21143088363 Andrew Holland

RT @anpa2001: RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @andy_s_64
http://twitter.com/kevinrye/status/21143412926 kevinrye

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://torylies.blogspot.com Richard Blogger

Interesting that on r4 yesterday Green identified that one inefficiency was the fact that government does not have central procurement, and that was something he would change at a time when the rest of the Conservative government’s policies are to de-centralise. Hmmm. Oh and who stopped government central procurement? The previous Tory government.

I think Green will have no effect whatsoever.
Mr. Sensible

Absolute disgrace.

If Cable goes, hopefully he won’t be the last Lib Dem to do so.
http://twitter.com/humphriesjohn/status/21144339804 John Humphries

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/aeuyHM
http://www.order-order.com Guido Fawkes

Cable will hang on to his status until the bitter end, if you think he is on the brink of resignation, put your money where your mouth is and clean up at the bookies.
http://twitter.com/wolba1/status/21145968850 wolba1

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://www.bolotics.blogspot.com bolotics

Cable is merely being towed along by the Tories and like the tube train on the northern line yesterday we are merely waiting for the coupling to snap and Liberals to hit the buffers…
Robert

Yes but he is getting £150,000 a year for five years and then will be moved to the house of lords for his retirement, not bad for coming third for a life time….
http://bestblogs.labourhome.org/2010/08/14/green%e2%80%99s-appointment-as-%e2%80%98cuts-tsar%e2%80%99-drives-cable-closer-to-resignation/ Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation « The best Labour blogs

[...] More… [...]
Chris

Cable won’t last, he’ll be pushed out of the cabinet on ill health grounds. He’ll go quietly, muttering coded warnings but won’t actually attack the government because then he won’t get his seat in the Lords.
Anon E Mouse

Guido Fawkes – Ben Fox won’t put his money where his mouth is – he had a bet with me and wouldn’t cough up the £50 when he lost…

As I remember that was over another of his speculative works of fiction, rather this this one…
http://www.lifedownloaded.com David Morris

Great article. I don’t necessarily think that Cable will resign over this, but I can perfectly understand why he might be annoyed at not being consulted, given his crucial role within the coalition.

I’d appreciate it if you could have a look at what I had to say about Sir Philip Greens appointment on my blog (the post can be found here:http://www.lifedownloaded.com/blog/should-sir-philip-green-lead-a-spending-review/). Feel free to comment.
Mark Stevo

Why is Green being described as an asset stripper in this article
Anon E Mouse

Mark Stevo – Because the writer of this article is delusional and a champagne socialist who welshes on his bets.
Ash

Could there be a more vomit-inducing spectacle than that of a squillionaire tax exile sagely advising the stuck-at-home peasantry that they’re going to have to tighten their belts and accept pay freezes, crumbling schools, reduced benefits etc. Yeah – either that or you and your ilk could start paying your fair share, you smug sod.

And then they have the nerve to talk about crackdowns on those dreadful benefit fraudsters, ten thousand of whom probably couldn’t diddle the taxman out of as much cash as Mr and Mrs Green. God give me strength…
http://twitter.com/dirkvl/status/21175447413 Dirk vom Lehn

@HewsonJack Ninety two per cent of Arcadia group is owned by Green’s wife, Tina, for tax purposes. http://tinyurl.com/3xv3n2s
http://twitter.com/meglauder/status/21178957576 Meg Lauder

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/aeuyHM
http://twitter.com/tiggertherese/status/21179957369 Therese

RT @itsmotherswork: RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc << …
http://twitter.com/hitchineng/status/21207677646 Hitchin England

Greens appointment as cuts Tsar drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @leftfootfwd
http://twitter.com/hitchineng/status/21137993519 Hitchin England

Greens appointment as cuts Tsar drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @leftfootfwd
http://twitter.com/joscelyn/status/21212532328 Joscelyn

Has billionaire Philip Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ pushed Vince Cable closer to resignation? http://bit.ly/coqWhc by @leftfootfwd
http://twitter.com/fnafilms/status/21215361607 zahra

RT @Joscelyn: Has billionaire Philip Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ pushed Vince Cable closer to resignation? http://bit.ly/coqWhc b …
http://twitter.com/mumontherun63/status/21216997342 Mummy N

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc
http://billyblofeld.wordpress.com Billy Blofeld

“Few could deny that Green is a brilliantly skilled money-maker and Arcadia has recorded operating profits of between £250-300m in the last three years despite the downturn.”

Only Labour Party idiots could hate someone for these skills – and then go on to hope that they aren’t harnessed for the national good.

P.S. I am suppressing a major urge to swear and unleash this message to the author in plain English.
Mr Jabberwock

“his billions are the result of massive tax avoidance.”

You obviously can’t make a penny (let a lone a billion) by tax avoidance – you can just keep more of the pennies that you do make.

If I get dividends from a US company that I own shares in and pay UK income tax on the dividends I receive am I a repugnant tax avoider as I am avoiding US income tax by living in the UK.
Robert

Avoiding tax, two ways to do that legally or illegally, if you use the legal route then it’s fine, if it’s illegal it’s fraud.

The fact is in thirteen years Labour did sod all about tax avoidance, it did sod all because it suited them to allow people like this to get away with it.
John Woods

I know that the US Treasury has similar problems but it cannot be beyond the wit of man to prevent this blatant tax avoidance. Is it possible that Green’s wife had the initial funds to buy the 90%+ ownership of Green’s company that she benefits from. Is she or any of her children UK subjects? There must be a way to stop these profits escaping from the UK economy tax free.
Chris

@Billy

LOL, your calling other people idiots when you don’t even have the mental capacity to work out which website your commenting on!

Please “for the national good”. Green is just another corporate fat cat, skimming off all the cream while paying his workers minimum wage. The fact he has interesting tax arrangements makes it all the more nauseating that this guy is allowed to comment on our public services. We’ve had years of these gurus looking into “waste”, the tories moronic £6bn in year cuts was supposed to be funded entirely from efficiency saving. For example, £1bn of it was going to come from IT projects, they found £100m; thus the child trust funds were chopped. And yet the Audit Commission, a body which has actually saved billions, is chopped by the fat man.

@Robert

Labour did make moves to crack down on avoidance, making accounting firms notify the revenue when they’d found a new tax loophole for instance. But they should have done more, if they had the tories would have been the first to speak up for the fat cats.
Mr. Sensible

Billy, I don’t really care if Arcadia posts proffits of £300 million or -£300 million; if he doesn’t pay his fair shair of taxes, he should be clamped down on.

It is not right that someone who does not pay his share of taxes should be advising the government on efficiency and waste.
Mr. Sensible

That should of course be profits.
mike

Milburn should be expelled from the Labour Party
along with the rest of the Continuity SDP

why do we tolerate Field, Hoon, Hoey, Milburn etc

they are working for Vichy England
http://twitter.com/drkmj/status/21274353825 DrKMJ

Greens appointment as cuts Tsar drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @leftfootfwd
http://twitter.com/trakgalvis/status/21294799097 Trakgalvis

Greens appointment as cuts Tsar drives Cable closer to resignation: http://bit.ly/coqWhc via @leftfootfwd
http://georgesandeman.blogspot.com George Sandeman

good article. green is in absolutely no position to advise government nor is any other pseudo-celebrity. feel free to take a read of this http://bit.ly/aNC9tN
http://twitter.com/superpaddy1601/status/21323244610 Edward Leathem

RT @leftfootfwd: Green’s appointment as ‘cuts Tsar’ drives Cable closer to resignation http://bit.ly/aeuyHM
http://www.electme.ca Elect Me

Funny how that works – hire someone daft at avoiding taxes in order to streamline government.
http://athousandcuts.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/step-aside-sir-philip-%e2%80%93-government-appoints-another-tax-avoider-to-advise-on-cuts/ Step aside Sir Philip – government appoints ANOTHER tax avoider to advise on cuts « A Thousand Cuts

[...] appointment as the coalition government’s new ‘cuts tsar’, Sir Philip Green has rightly made unwanted headlines over his tax [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/08/another-week-another-tory-tax-exile-only-this-time-the-daily-mail-sinks-him/ Another week, another Tory tax exile – only this time the Daily Mail sinks him | Left Foot Forward

[...] following Left Foot Forward’s piece on Philip Green’s controversial appointment as Government ‘cuts Tsar’, and our exposé on [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/10/george-osborne-andrew-mitchell-philip-hammond-dispatches-investigation-into-tax-avoidance/ Osborne, Mitchell and Hammond accused of tax avoidance | Left Foot Forward

[...] against the Tories, and the party’s refusal to take action against it, from Lord Ashcroft to Philip Green and the circle of hedge fund managers surrounding the chancellor, and in February, we [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/01/mail-and-telegraph-pull-anti-tax-dodging-ads/ Mail and Telegraph pull anti-tax-dodging ads | Left Foot Forward

[...] party’s refusal to take action against and clamp down on tax avoidance, from Lord Ashcroft to Philip Green and the circle of hedge fund managers surrounding the Chancellor, while in February, we [...]