Miliband lashes out in war of words against Alliance Boots
THE WAR of words between Labour and the business community raged on yesterday, as Ed Miliband used a televised debate to respond to criticisms made by executive chairman of Boots, Stefano Pessina.
Answering questions from an audience of young voters, Miliband commented: “Yesterday the chairman of Boots started telling people how to vote in the UK general election. Well it turns out that the chairman of Boots lives in Monaco, and is actually avoiding his taxes. You know, I’ve just got to say to you, I don’t think people in Britain are going to take kindly to being lectured by somebody who’s avoiding his taxes on how they should be voting at the UK general election”.
He went on to say that there was an “unholy alliance between the Conservative party and people like [Pessina]”, who lives in Monaco.
The Labour leader claimed that he was actually being pro-business, and said other companies were angry that they pay their tax, while others use their size and global nature to limit their tax liability: “This is about businesses.” he said. “This is about decent businesses in this country small businesses, large businesses, who are doing the right thing. The vast majority are doing the right thing, and frankly they’re as narked as we are about the fact that there are some people and some businesses who are not doing the right thing, and we’ve got to clamp down on it. I think it’s a pro-business argument.”