Did Dodgy Tessa Jowell split just to save her career?

[wendigo100]

Jowell split 'was not political'

Claims that Tessa Jowell sacrificed her marriage to save her career amid a row over her husband's finances are "grotesque", cabinet minister David Milliband says.

Bit of a coincidence then, isn't it?

Grotesque maybe, but standard political behaviour these days.

[Mailman]

I dunno...the cynic in me says the split is a marriage of convenience...but then again her husband is Italian so he is bound to be as dodgy as hell!

Mailman

[mcquiggd]

Yes.

[zathras]

Jowell split 'was not political'Bit of a coincidence then, isn't it?

Grotesque maybe, but standard political behaviour these days.

I have absolutly no idea and to be honest don't care a fig. However their are aspects of this case which need answering.

For example why would anybody sign a mortgage on their house without knowing how it was going to get paid.

Or for that matter it took 2 to 3 years after this money was paid before the IR caught up with it and then declared it earnings. During this time tax was not paid on it not was it registered in the Members Register of interests (where it should have been had it been a gift, the IR declaring it income got them out of that one).

Even if one accepts that eventually they were charged tax, interest and penalties amounting to nearly quarter of a million pounds. If that was the case

a) Where did the money come to pay the tax bill

b) If it was the original £350K, where was the money to pay the mortgage. Is there more money sloshing around?

Even if one accepted that all of this was above board, legal and declared in any registers it should have been there is the issue of the penalty imposed. According to yesterday's (Sunday) Times that penaly was unduly lenient. HMRC have traditionally been very hard on tax advisors who stray in their personal financial affairs and the penalty imposed was remakable tame. Is it that the relationship between the civil service has become such that no civil servent is willing to impose a penalty on the family of a minister that they would on any other member of the country's population.

[The Lone Gunman]

Might I also add to the general comments:

I want to know how we can trust anyone as a Minister when they are not even capable of running their own finances.
How could she not know all the answers.

[Fungus]

I think that were a minister to consort with a known criminal, then questions would be asked. In this case a minister is married to someone who might have committed tax fraud, and been paid to get a criminal off the hook. All these allegations are as yet unproven, but the smell is noticeable.

And yet Telfon Tony carries on in his usual way: "Oh we're New Labour, whiter than white, how could we be guilty of misconduct, oh no we're not nasty dirty horrible corrupt dishonest Tories, nooo nooo nooo, we nice people." So that's alright then.

[BobTheCrate]

Did Dodgy Tessa Jowell split just to save her career?

Absolutely not.

She seperated as her best play to try & save her job.

I think she'll fail and will eventually resign. She failed to declare what she knew she was suppose to declare and her claims of ignorance about the money are not tenable.

I hope she stays though. The more sleaze slopping about on Labour's front benches the better.