Britannia Radio

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

Sky Debate Question for Tonight:
Did An Accountant Really Sign Off Ken’s Tax Declaration?

Ken said last month: “No journalist has contacted my accountant to ask anything about my tax arrangements. I’d be quite happy for them to do so.” So we called his accountant and he wasn’t happy to speak to us at all…
We called Ken’s accountant Peter Auguste to ask him why if he had signed off Ken’s released tax declaration as Team Ken claims, he had not put his name to the document? He refused to confirm he had in fact signed off the decalration. A week after Ken released his figures they then changed on his website. We think Ken was lying and that the figures were not in fact signed off by his accountant, who would not have got them wrong when by law they were signed off and sworn to be true in his annual returns to HMRC.
All of sudden Ken’s claimed income had risen from £164,055 to £205,800 and his tax paid from £113,861 to £131,606. Mysterious.
This might have something to do with the fact that – as he’s admitted to the Standard – he “forgot” to include in his declaration a “resettlement grant” he got from the GLA when he lost the mayoralty. But that resettlement grant was £71,000 – so even Ken’s new figures don’t seem to add up. So a simple question for Ken tonight. Were his released figures really produced by his accountant or by his campaign?
His accountant has refused to confirm to us he signed them off. There is no signature or letterhead on the released figures and the document properties appears to show that it was produced by Mark Watts. Watts is the name of Ken Livingstone’s former advisor whilst Mayor who joined his Parliamentary staff in 1999 and now works as a “Climate Change advisor”. Not an accountant…

Lord Sugar Says Fire Ken

Leading Labour peer Lord Sugar has called on Londoners to ignore Ed Miliband’s explicit pleas for Labour types to vote Ken. He tweeted“Livingstone must NOT get in on 3rd May”. Followed by:

“I don’t care if Ed Miliband is backing Livingstone. I seriously suggest NO ONE votes for Livingston in the Mayoral elections.”

He could have given Boris a run for his money…

Watson Spins Divorce as Murdoch’s Fault

Tom Watson is blaming Rupert Murdoch for the break down of his marriage. His wife Siobhan used to be on his payroll until the expenses crisis exposed him and in a shameless plug for his new book he says:

“I’m very sad to admit the failure of my marriage. I tried my very best to hold things together but the pressure of the hacking scandal inquiry has taken its toll.”

He says that it was the “aggressive”media intrusion which had increased his problems rather than his late night carousing sessions in Soho dives, his 9-hour long video game playing sessions and his wandering eye. By complete coincidence he has a big press conference this morning.
What Watson doesn’t mention about that “aggressive media intrusion” is that he was being followed by a hired private investigator at the 2009 Labour conference in Brighton because the News of the World editorial management did not trust their lobby hacks – who they saw as too close to Watson drinking buddies – to stand up stories about problems in his marriage.  The private-investigator followed him back to his hotel room…












Matthew Elliott Approached by Downing Street | Telegraph
Tax Flap | Ken
Ken’s Privatised Healthcare | CityAM
FCO Admits Ignoring PA Extremism | The Commentator
The €uro Must Die | Express
Dave is His Own Worst Enemy | Harry Cole
Calm Down Dear | Iain Martin
Guardian Give Platform to Terrorist | Raheem Kassam
Latino’s For Ken | Andrew Gilligan
Ed Davey’s SpAd is Sound | Chris Hope
Labour MP Turns on Ken | HuffPo
Austerity is Not the Problem | Andrew Lilico
The War on Drugs is Lost | MI6
Laurie Penny Quote Fabrication Allegations | Kernal

Previously Seen