where is our MP’s morality?

By Philippa May From Hereford Times

In his article (HT 4 July), Ian Morris details that Mr Wiggin receives £49,140 p.a. for working 8 hours a week for the Bermuda-based Emerging Asset Management which has fund platforms based there and on the Cayman Islands. He receives a further £19,475 p.a. by way of bonus and director’s fees. These figures , which amount to around £178 per hour for a 40 hour week and 48 week year, are additional to his parliamentary salary of £79,468. The latter equates to an hourly rate of £41.38. Mr Wiggin’s time to devote to constituency and parliamentary matters is reduced by 20% as a result of the EAM commitment. The main activity of EAM is to provide clients with a ‘turn-key solution for both onshore US and offshore jurisdictions’ (www.eam.bm).

According to the National Crime Agency last year, the Cayman Islands is ‘not supplying information about beneficial ownership of firms in the Caymans’. Bermuda is ‘a popular tax avoidance location’ and was used by Google in 2011 to reduce its tax liability by $2 billion (wikipedia). Both it, and the Caymans, are British Overseas Territories which are regularly accused of money-laundering and hiding the ownership of assets, in Britain and elsewhere, that have been acquired as a result of fraud and/or criminality.

Whilst in no way suggesting that my MP is engaged in breaking the law, just the thought that he works in a financial environment used by companies who do not pay their fair share of taxes, and in territories that facilitate theft makes me cringe. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, indeed most large internet companies, trade in the UK but make little contribution to our crumbling infrastructure that has occurred under the stewardship of Mr Wiggin and his colleagues.

Where is the morality that we are entitled to respect from our MP? The national living wage in the UK is currently £8.21 per hour. In North Herefordshire, wages have been low for decades. In 2009, Mr Wiggin featured in the parliamentary expenses scandal. The investigating Committee stated he ‘had not been cooperative with the enquiry’ and that ‘on balance of probability they found he overclaimed expenses for council tax, phone and workmen’s bills’.

The cavalier approach by a Brexit-supporting MP who has failed to explain to farmers the catastrophic effect of a no-deal exit, is astonishing.

Colin Boylett

Kington

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