Is Keir Starmer a total hypocrite?

[Curiousvoter]

It has just been revealed that Keir Starmer is entitled to a pension (from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions) that avoids him paying tax.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/government-iain-duncan-smith-b2305535.html

Yet he (Keir) has stated that other wealthy' savers be subject to a cap on the amount they can save.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65037136

One rule for one etc?

He's a back-stabbing Tory stooge. Sabotaged Corbyn. Failing Assange. He's another Blair.

Well he doesn’t have to take it does he, he could donate it all.

@Lucy I can’t find it but my political journalist friend told me a quote once which was something like Conservatives will stab you in the front but Labourites will stab you in the back or something along those lines.

All MP's have the choice to pay 13.75% of their salary in return for a pension that builds up at a rate of 1/40th per year. This means that it will take 20 years to build up an index linked pension equal to half their salary. MPs currently get k£84, so this is an inflation proof pension of £42,000 at state retirement age.

Virtually nobody else has any chance of building up such a huge pension in such a short space of time. I worked in education through the "golden years" of final salary schemes. Even with 41 years service I get nothing like that.

It is breathtaking hypocrisy for any uk politician to criticise pensions paid to anyone!

For all the claims of Tory HQ being out, I'm more likely to believe Labour HQ is on it because surely no one can defend Starmer who comes across as, let's face it, a dull, hypocritical gammon. Especially as the tax dodge was done by Labour and it really wouldn't do to let that info out, better try to bury it under a mountain of hyperbolic finger-pointing. I wish just one side could be honest for once 🤷🏻‍♀️

There is a lot of nonsense on this thread.

Starmer’s deal IS a big deal because it’s the very reason many senior doctors left the NHS after huge bills and retired or went private.

Rishi pays the same dividend tax as you would if you had shares. They’re in an investment trust so he can’t influence them.

The pension cap was a bad idea because it punished the wealthy who earned it through the regular income tax route type jobs and were not rich enough to have a tax advisor or to shield money in trusts or offshore. Basically your paediatric consultant, senior GP, local solicitor, programmer etc. who pay lots into the tax system for others to benefit but not wealthy enough to be able to have schemes to avoid it.

So it’s a bad look (and I’m not a Tory voter or poor).

Scheme was finalised under David Cameron in 2013, so why the fuss? it became part of the T&C's of his employment contract
The Tories came into power in 2010, had 3 years to change it and several other DPPs have benefited or will do eventually.

Plus Starmer wasn't even in politics back then, its just another tory smear.

Tories are so far behind in the polls and even further now that Sunak has been exposed as a millionaire tax dodger and investing in our competitors, that they will literally dig up anything they can on Labour.