9am Lowdown: McDonnell slams HMRC cuts

Good morning, here’s the lowdown!

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McDonnell slams HMRC cuts

The shadow chancellor John McDonnell will speak out against the HMRC staff cuts at a public and commercial services union protest outside parliament tomorrow.

The protest will be from 1.15 in old palace years Westminster. The union opposes HMRC plans to close its offices in the UK, which will lead to 150 redundancies. 

Commenting about tomorrow’s protest, John McDonnell said: “Closing almost all of HMRC's offices will devastate a department whose funding continues to be slashed by the Tories while they offer mates’ rates that let corporate giants off the hook on tax.

HMRC hierarchy revealed

HMRC will utilise a dual leadership structure, with Lin Homer’s successor reporting to the tax authority’s executive chair Edward Troup.

HMRC’s new chief exec John Thompson will focus on the day-to-day running of HMRC, and Troup will concentrate on tax policy.

According to Civil Service World, Treasury permanent secretary Sir Nick Macpherson said there was no “perfect” way to organise the top of HMRC, but there were “precedents for this sort of arrangement”, with former HMRC chief Dame Leslie Strathie having previously reported to the department's then-chairman, Mick Clasper. 

Indian accountant’s grisly crimes

A sad story from India: A 35-year-old chartered accountant has murdered 14 members of his family, including seven children, with a butcher's knife in India.

Hasnin Anwar Warekar slit their throats during a family party then hanged himself, reports Sky News.

“Warekar’s 21-year-old sister was the only survivor of the attack in Thane, 20 miles from the city of Mumbai, in the early hours of Sunday morning,” says the report.