Sol Campbell clashes with Labour MP over mansion tax on his £25million house in Chelsea and Northumberland ‘country pile’
Sol Campbell owns £25m house in London and Northumberland mansion
He appeared on BBC2’s Daily Politics to explain mansion tax was unfair
Ex-England footballer said proposed levy was a ‘tax on aspiration’
He said Labour should instead pursue companies who had avoided tax
But MP Owen Smith said people had little sympathy with millionaires like Campbell pleading poverty and dismissed his argument as ‘nonsense’
Sol Campbell had the details of his property portfolio read out to him on television by a Labour frontbencher, in the latest row over the mansion tax.
The ex-England footballer claimed Ed Miliband’s plan to levy a tax on homes worth more than £2million was ‘unfair’ and intended to ‘punish’ people who had done well.
He was filmed walking around his lavish home in London’s Chelsea, making an espresso, explaining that he had paid all his income tax and stamp duty and never used offshore tax havens.
Mr Campbell argued that instead of taxing property, Labour should press companies such as Google, Starbucks and Amazon, who were shamed for avoiding tax, to pay their fair share.
But he was attacked by Labour’s Owen Smith, who told him: ‘This is nonsense’. He added that people who were struggling ‘will have zero sympathy with millionaires like you pleading poverty’.
The shadow Welsh secretary then read out a list of all the footballer’s properties while the pair were guests on BBC2’s Daily Politics, although Mr Campbell disputed some of the details.
‘I looked you up before coming here and I see you’ve got a £25million house in Chelsea that you’ve just put up for sale, you’ve got a big country pile in Northumberland and another flat in Chelsea’, the Labour MP said.
‘And I also saw that the place you’ve got in Cheyne Walk [his home in Chelsea], you were renting out for £75,000 a month’.
Mr Campbell, 40, did not dispute the first two properties but said the rental of his home ‘didn’t happen’.
Mr Smith added: ‘Well you can tell me whether the others are right but we are talking about £3,000 a year extra that you would pay for a £2million to £3million property.’
