Steve Booth

🚨 #LoanCharge Thread for @carolvorders & others 🚨 Meet Mel Stride the "Honourable" Tory MP with a controversial history in the #LoanChargeScandal. 🧐 1/ Stride was the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2017-2019. He rushed the Loan Charge through parliament...

This is as big as the post office scandal. 10 suicides, families destroyed. The #Tories rammed this through parliament, to hell any consequences. #LoanCharge Accountants were paid commission to place clients into tax avoidance schemes targeted by HMRC news.sky.com/story/accounta…

The loan charge scandal has driven people to the brink of bankruptcy, devastated families and has been linked to 10 suicides news.sky.com/story/accounta…

@SkyNews And yet @HMRCgovuk saw that and said "hold my beer" whilst they set about bludgeoning victims of mis-selling into submission via #LoanCharge until at least 10 of them took their own lives. @jamesmurray_ldn

Main story in today's @yorkshirepost business section. #loancharge. Please do support our campaigning journalism and subscribe today or #buyapaper @loanchargeAPPG

Loan Charge and settlement terms offered to large companies and individuals - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament ⁦@EstherMcVey1⁩ edm.parliament.uk/early-day-moti…

@gregwrightYP @loanchargeAPPG @gregsmith_uk I am sure those 10 people who sadly took their own lives over the #LoanChargeScandal would have been able to settle for 15%. They would still be with us today, but Sir Jon Thompson, Sir Jim Harra etc chose to pursue a punishment strategy that meant victims faced financial ruin.

Please write to your MPs requesting that they support this EDM. The irony of @HMRCgovuk giving differentiated, sweetheart deals to businesses, whom they simultaneously failed to pursue in time for #loancharge scheme tax,is an affront to families of #LoanChargeSuicide victims

A typically evasive & disingenuous response from #HMRC. These are official minutes from the Treasury commissioned & funded Morse Review & were taken and written up by either an HMRC or a Treasury civil servant temporarily seconded to the review! 🧐 We need a #LoanChargeInquiry

🔴 HMRC accused of cutting secret loan charge deal with large companies telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/hmrc…

@MoneyTelegraph Wow who would have thunk it!? HMRC pummel the little guys into despair and sadly suicide in 10 cases whilst giving those that can afford it, a free pass. #LoanChargeScandal #LoanCharge

Now it’s known that #HMRC settled for just 15% (85% discount) with large companies, victims of mis-selling MUST be offered at least as good terms. The current review into settlements must now conclude this to have any credibility. We’ve written to Ray McCann urging him to do so.

Latest on #loancharge: A Freedom of Information request has revealed that HMRC settled with large corporations for just 15 per cent of what was owed for a number of tax schemes, MPs have been told by Greg Smith, co-chair of @loanchargeAPPG @gregsmith_uk yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/loan-…

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Huge new FOI revelation in the #LoanChargeScandal raised by @gregsmith_uk in #TreasuryQuestions exposing #HMRC’s 15% settlement deal with large companies in 2015, as reported by Ray McCann to Lord Morse in 2019. All the while ruthlessly persecuting contractors.

🚨The latest revelation in the #LoanChargeScandal is coming out tomorrow. It exposes the disgrace of #HMRC’s whole approach & that the current highly restricted non-independent review (only of settlement terms - how to “encourage people to pay”) is a wholly unnecessary nonsense.

@GarethBurns18 @trussliz @MelJStride Erm x.com/stevebooth79/s…

@trussliz @MelJStride So alienating. Do you have any friends? Mel is a coherent and bright Guy.

In attacking the Mini Budget, @MelJStride sides with the failed Treasury Orthodoxy. Stride is a creature of the system. When he served alongside me as Treasury Minister, he always went along with officials - including on the Loan Charge and IR35, damaging the self-employed and SMEs. He backed Sunak's huge spending, but not my tax cuts which were smaller in size and would have increased growth. Britain's system of government is broken. Nothing will change with people like him in charge.

@trussliz @MelJStride An important short thread on Mel Stride here x.com/stevebooth79/s…

@grok @cinephile175804 @stats_feed @grok Would this behaviour be normal for someone in a similar position at that time in history and are people wrongly judging him based on leadership expectations of today? Also are they judging him ok absolute facts?

Winston Churchill is often hailed as a great leader for his role in guiding Britain through World War II, with iconic speeches and key alliances that helped defeat fascism. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and was voted the greatest Briton in a 2002 poll. However, his legacy is complex. His racial views, like calling Indians "a beastly people," and his handling of the 1943 Bengal famine, linked to millions of deaths, draw heavy criticism. He also supported controversial tactics, like chemical weapons use in 1919. Other figures like Thomas Jefferson share similar dualities—celebrated yet flawed. Historical context shapes these legacies, but their actions spark debate about greatness versus moral failings.

Who is someone that is generally considered a great person but actually a monster?

@grok @WolfysBar @LCAG_2019 @Ray_McCann55 @jamesmurray_ldn @grok How about those people who entered schemes before 2010?

The McCann Review's terms focus on settling tax disputes for contractors using loan schemes from 2010-2019, but critics argue it protects promoters and the government by avoiding broader issues like systemic failures or promoter accountability. The review may not fully address fairness, as it prioritizes settlements over investigating HMRC's or promoters' roles. While Ray McCann claims some flexibility to examine these, the narrow scope fuels skepticism. The outcome remains uncertain as of May 29, 2025, with recommendations due by summer. Contractors face ongoing distress, and the review may not deliver the justice many seek.

To save @Ray_McCann55 and @jamesmurray_ldn trouble we asked Chat GPT "What should be the outcome for contractors from the McCann loan charge?" review The full response : The outcome for contractors from the McCann Loan Charge Review should be clear, fair, and restorative.

Bankrupt by HMRC for EBT arrangements Unable to get a job with bankruptcy sword on my head, legal fight and my mental health Locked out of house for whole of lockdown I feel like taking my life but my kids will be left with no support @LCAG_2019 @loanchargeAPPG #LoanChargeScandal

@Stephen41792571 @SkyNews @jamesmurray_ldn @Ray_McCann55 #FreeJamesMurray