Cameron will ‘roll out red carpet’
The British PM said French businesspeople wanting to avoid Hollande’s new taxes on the rich should become UK tax-residents
BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will give a warm welcome to rich French businesspeople seeking to escape higher taxes.
He said: “If the French go ahead with a 75% top rate of tax we will roll out the red carpet and welcome more French businesses to Britain and they will pay taxes in Britain and that will pay for our health service, and our schools and everything else.”
Cameron, who is at the G20 summit in Mexico, was referring to a new top personal income tax rate on any part above a million euros planned as part of a “corrective finance bill” to be voted on by MPs next month.
Cameron, meanwhile, has lowered the top tax band in the UK from 50% to 45%.
The remark underlines the frostiness between Hollande and Cameron, who, like Germany’s Angela Merkel, has stated economic austerity is the key to solving the economic crisis as opposed to Hollande’s focus on measures for growth.
French Work Minister Michel Sapin, asked about the comments, joked to the press: “I’m not sure how you roll a red carpet over the Channel; it would probably get wet,” adding he thought it was “a remark that just slipped out”.
Photo:Guillaume Paulmier
