Ukip donor: ‘not all’ tax avoidance wrong – video
Ukip donor Stuart Wheeler tells Channel 4 News that he does not think Nigel Farage will be “in a government role” after the general election.
Stuart Wheeler told Channel 4 News: “I don’t think he’ll be in a government role. He’s said that he won’t have a coalition.”
Would he like to see Nigel Farage as deputy prime minister?
“I doubt it. I’m not on the inside now, I stopped being treasurer nine months ago but I very much doubt it.”
Mr Wheeler says he won’t be donating much more money to Ukip ahead of the general election.
“That’s about it. I’ve got to consider my family and myself. I don’t think there’ll be much more from me”
Conservative and Labour party donors have been in the firing line in recent weeks over claims of tax avoidance. Stuart Wheeler told Channel 4 News: “Not all tax avoidance is bad.
“I think if it’s very, very complicated and terribly artificial then one can object to it, but the ordinary man in the street will do what he can to pay less tax
“I haven’t really done… anything much to avoid tax. I’ve got three children, and I am intending to give them some money…so that they won’t have to pay inheritance tax on that money that I give them.
“That’s a way of avoiding tax if you like. I think an awful lot of people do it and I think it’s quite okay.”
Hamilton dispute
Mr Wheeler, who has donated more than £700,000 to Ukip over the past five years, had threatened to stop funding the party in a dispute over his friend Neil Hamilton, following accusations of expenses fiddling.
The issue has now been resolved, with Ukip dropping its investigation into Mr Hamilton, and in an interview with the Financial Times on 16 February, Mr Wheeler said he was prepared to give the party another £100,000.
He told the newspaper he expected Ukip would not be able to raise the £7-8m leader Nigel Farage had set as a target in the run-up to May’s general election.
Defection
Stuart Wheeler helped to organise Douglas Carswell’s defection from the Tories to Ukip. He has said he would return to the Conservative fold if London Mayor Boris Johnson became leader and pursued Ukip policies.
In the 1970s, Mr Wheeler set up a spread-betting company, IG Index, from which he made a £90m fortune. He used some of this money to support the Conservatives, later changing his allegiance to Ukip.
After selling a tranche of shares in the company, he bought a Jacobean castle in Kent, where he lives with his family.
In 2001, he donated £5m to the Conservatives, the biggest single donation a British political party has ever received.
