00:00Can you just tell me what the decision was from HMRC as you understand it?
00:03Well, I welcome HMRC's conclusion and they've said that there wasn't any wrongdoing
00:09and that I didn't try to avoid paying tax or I wasn't careless in the way in which I conducted
00:16myself.
00:17At the time when I was in government and this came to my attention that there could have been tax
00:22owed,
00:22I was really shocked about that because I'd taken advice and I'd never wanted to avoid paying my tax.
00:27And for me, that was the most distressing thing is that people felt that I was tax dodging
00:32or trying to set up trust to avoid tax or being careless by not taking the appropriate advice
00:38and HMRC have concluded that that isn't the case.
00:41Did that hurt when that was being bandied around that you might have done it on purpose?
00:46It did and it hurt me because I had to then talk about my son and his personal circumstances,
00:51which I think, you know, it's not fair on him.
00:54He's a young man now and, you know, it's his history that it's not really for me to band around
01:01the airwaves.
01:03But equally, I didn't want people to think that the person who they know me as,
01:07the person who went into politics for fight for people,
01:10suddenly dropped all their values and was just on the take.
01:13And that's never been me.
01:15And I was horrified that that's what the consequences could have been,
01:19that I'd done something wrong.
01:20And actually, it's a very complex area that is ambiguous within the law.
01:25And after getting expert tax advice of people that have been in that field for a very long time,
01:31that is shown.
01:32And HMRC have concluded that there wasn't any wrongdoing on my behalf.
01:36And HMRC have concluded that there wasn't any wrongdoing on my behalf.
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