Brown Sacks Minister Over Tax Claims
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Section:GDN BE PaGe:1 Edition Date:090618 Edition:05 Zone: Sent at 18/6/2009 1:41 cYanmaGentaYellowblack Splattt! Big in Austria The day Obama But can Brüno turned killer take Britain? This section Page 3 TEASER First review Page 10 This panel tells the reader about what is happening in another section of the paper. It is to tempt readers inside the newspaper. £0.90 Thursday 18.06.09 Published in London and PRICE AND DATE Manchester The Guardian costs 90p on weekdays and £1.70 guardian.co.uk on Saturdays. The price barely covers half the cost of the newsprint. The rest Titlepiece comes from adverts. The titlepiece is a specially designed logo that shows Brown sacks Green tide Defying crackdown,the name of the newspaper. HEADLINEMousavi supporters march again The biggest headline on the page is called the “main splash”. This is a serious Ian Black minister over story so we can’t make Middle East editor jokes in the headline. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians protesting against the “theft” of last week’s presidential election took to the streets for tax claims a fi fth consecutive day yesterday , defying a ban on rallies as the regime arrested more reformists and enforced a crackdown on media coverage. Exchequer secretary fl ipped homes Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate who STANDFIRST insists he beat the incumbent Mahmoud to avoid capital gains tax on sale A standfirst is used to Ahmadinejad, called for further peaceful add detail that was not protests in mosques today to mourn the avoid paying capital gains tax (CGT). It victims of the worst unrest since the 1979 Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt included in the headline. said: “I am enclosing a declaration to vary revolution. At least seven people have your previous main residence election been confi rmed killed. Gordon Brown received a blowBYLINE on the for a period of one month to [your “A number of our countrymen were eve of the publication of MPs’Sometimes expenses we includeBurnley the home] and then back to [your wounded or martyred,” the former when he was forced last night to sack London home]. prime minister said on his website. “I writer’s job title or where Kitty Ussher as a junior Treasury minister “The eff ect of varying the election is ask the people to express their solidarity in the face of evidence that shethey “fl areipped” writing from.that We [your Burnley home] will receive the with the families ... by coming together her homes for a month to avoidalways paying credit staff fi nalwriters. three years’ main residence exemp- in mosques or taking part in peaceful thousands of pounds in capital gains tax. tion and the gain will be completely demonstrations.” As demoralised MPs brace them- exempt from capital gains tax provided The interior ministry was reported to selves for another blow to their battered [your Burnley home] is sold before April have ordered an investigation into an reputation today, the prime minister told 2007.” attack on Tehran University students by Ussher she would have to stand down Ussher sold the Burnley property in Basij militiamen and police. as exchequer secretary after the Daily March 2007 for £62,000, a profi t of more The government’s day-old ban on Telegraph revealed an accountant had than £40,000. She would have been liable journalists reporting from the streets did advised her how to avoid paying the tax. to pay 40% in capital gains tax on the prop- not halt the broadcast of pictures of the In 2007 Ussher changed the designa- erty, £16,000, though this may have been protests, which showed many demon- tion of her main home for oneBODYTEXT month considerably reduced . strators wearing black clothes or ribbons, from her south London property to her A series of ministers have recently faced carrying pictures of the dead and injured, house in her Burnley constituency.The mainThis “body” claims of a news they “fl ipped” their homes to avoid and making V for victory signs. meant she avoided paying the tax,story. which Often thepaying only part CGT. Hazel Blears, who resigned as Iranian authorities accused foreign is liable on second properties, whenwritten she by the reporter.communities secretary, paid back £13,332 media of acting as the “mouthpiece of sold her Burnley home for a £40,000This profi text ist the inGuardian’s CGT after “fl ipping”. rioters” as Twitter, Facebook and other in March 2007. standard body text.Ussher The said she had done nothing websites kept information fl owing. News The Telegraph informed Ussherfont isthat eight pointwrong, Guardian but said she had decided to resign organisations were fl ooded with amateur it would publish a letter today fromEgyptian. her to avoid causing embarrassment to Brown. footage of protests while a state TV chan- accountant advising her that changing the In her resignation letter she wrote: “ I do nel accused the US of “intolerable” inter- designation of her homes would allow her not want to cause you or the government ference. The Iranian government sum- to avoid paying capital gains tax. A prin- any embarrassment. I did not do anything moned the Swiss ambassador, who rep- cipal home does not attract the tax while wrong. At all times my actions have been resents US interests in Iran, to complain MPs can only attract Commons allowances in line with HM Revenue and Customs about American interference, state-run on second homes. guidance and based on the advice of a Press TV reported. Ussher contacted Brown who informed reputable fi rm of accountants who in turn The Obama administration, while say- her that receiving such tax advice made it were recommended to me by the House ing it is not meddling in Iran, said on Tues- impossible for her to continue as a Treas- of Commons fees offi ce. Neither have I USE OF COLOUR day it asked Twitter to remain open to help ury minister. Downing Street accepts abused the allowance system of the House Every page of the Guardian anti-government protesters. The com- Ussher acted legally and within the Com- of Commons in any way.” is printed in colour, though pany had planned a temporary shutdown mons rules . Ussher, 38, who has two children under to overhaul its service on Monday night. The departure of Ussher, who fi ve, also announced that she would not pictures can still appear as Observers attributed yesterday’s rela- announced last night that she would be contesting the next election because black and white if we want. tive quiet in part to the millions of people also be standing down as MP for Burnley she fi nds it diffi cult to combine life as an There is a double page watching the World Cup qualifying match at the next election for family reasons, MP, minister and parent. “As you know I photograph in the centre between Iran and South Korea . Six Iranian may add to criticisms of parliament today also decided some time ago, completely players, including the captain, wore the of every issue. No other when full details of MPs’ expenses are for family reasons, that I would not be green wristbands that have become the released . The information will be highly putting my name forward to contest the national newspaper uses s ymbol of the Mousavi edited and is unlikely to include the sort of next general election. The hours of parlia- full colour. campaign. The images of 4-7≥ correspondence which terminated Ussh- ment simply don’t work with kids. There defi ance from Seoul were er’s ministerial career last night. is no other reason for this decision.” seen live across Iran, but the armbands The letter from Ussher’s accountant, Sarah McCarthy-Fry, MP for Port- had disappeared by the second half. dated 14 December 2006, made clear she Pro-Mousavi demonstrators march in Tehran yesterday wearing green wristbands was prepared to go to some lengths to Continued on page 2 ≥ TURN that have become the symbol of the opposition camp Photograph: Getty Images Continued on page 2 ≥ Often front page stories continue elsewhere in CAPTION Blair knew of secret policypaper. on torture of terror suspectsCaptions give a brief ‘We anonymous description of a photograph bloggers have come or graphic. Often they include the to expect a level of Ian Cobain of prisoners”. But they were also told they leading experts in the field, because it Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It was around were not under any obligation to prevent takes no account of Britain’s obligations to this time, Davidphotographer’s Miliband, the name. foreign consideration from the detainees from being mistreated. avoid complicity under the UN convention secretary, told MPs on Tuesday, that the rest of the web’ Tony Blair was aware of the existence “Given that they are not within our against torture . policy was changed, becoming more of a secret interrogation policy which custody or control, the law does not Despite this, the secret policy went “comprehensive and formal” . effectively led to British citizens, and require you to intervene to prevent this,” on to underpin British intelligence’s In a letter to the intelligence and security others, being tortured in counter-terrorism the policy said. relationships with a number of foreign committee (ISC), the group of MPs and Belle de Jour, investigations, the Guardian can reveal. The policy almost certainly breaches intelligence agencies which had become peers that provides political oversight of Commentnt The policy was devised in the aftermath international human rights law, according UK allies in the “war against terror”. the UK’s security and intelligence services, of the September 11 attacks, and off ered to Philippe Sands QC, one of the world’s The policy was set out in written on May 24 2004, Blair said that rather than page 33 ≥ guidanceEDITION toSTARS MI5 and MI6 officers instructions sent to MI5 and MI6 offi cers considering making a complaint, “UK questioningWe print five differentdetainees edi- in Afghanistan in January 2002, which told them they intelligence personnel ‘The law does not require PULL QUOTE whomtions per they night.