THE stars of Mrs Brown’s Boys at the centre of a tax dodging row should stop using the NHS because they “obviously don’t want to pay for it”, a senior SNP MSP has suggested.
Christine Grahame said she felt “disgust” at the actions of Paddy Houlihan and Fiona and Martin Delany after they exposed earlier this week in the Paradise Papers.
The massive data leak showed the trio transferred around £2m of fees from the hit BBC sitcom to companies in Mauritius, then received money back as tax-free loans.
Ms Grahame raised the issue of tax avoidance at First Minister’s Questions.
She asked Nicola Sturgeon if she shared her disgust towards “Fiona and Martin Delany and Paddy Houlihan, actors in the hit show Mrs Brown’s Boys, whose wages are paid by the BBC, funded by the license payers, and who are squirrelling away some £2m offshore to avoid income tax?
“And does she agree with me that they should consider disbarring themselves from using, for example, any health service across the UK, which they obviously don’t want to pay for - or wouldn’t they like that script?”
Nicola Sturgeon said “the vast majority of people across the UK” shared the anger behind Ms Grahame’s question.
She said: “People should pay the taxes they are due to pay.
Paying tax is the collective duty that we have to ensure that we have public services that are there for all of us when we need them.
“The taxes we pay provide our national health service, they provide our education system, they provide the infrastructure and the other support that our businesses need to prosper.
“So when somebody puts money into an offshore haven, for example, that is not bound to pay full tax they are depriving public services of the money they rely on, and that is wrong.”
The three actors are paid by the production company behind Mrs Brown’s Boys, which is owned by the show’s star and creator, Brendan O’Carroll, who plays Agnes Brown.
Mr Houlihan is one of the boys, Dermot; Fiona Delany stars plays his wife Maria, and her real-life husband, Mr Delany, stars as Trevor Brown, the youngest son.
Ms Delany is also Mr O’Carroll’s daughter in real life.
Mr O’Carroll has said neither he or his companies have ever been involved in a tax avoidance scheme, and the actors wages were paid into a UK company bank account.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser later asked Ms Sturgeon if she regretted the Scottish Government paying £10m in business incentives to Amazon, given its record on tax.
Ms Sturgeon said almost £7bn was being lost to UK public services each year through tax evasion and tax evasion, and that was “unacceptable”.
She said: “We call on all companies, Amazon included, to pay their due tax.”
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