Billy Bragg withholds taxes over RBS bonuses issue

Singer Billy Bragg has reiterated his calls for bonuses at the Royal Bank of Scotland to be capped as he prepared to withhold his taxes in protest.

Bragg is self employed and therefore was supposed to pay his tax by midnight last night, but said he will not hand over the cash unless Chancellor Alistair Darling stops the payment of bonuses above 25,000.

The performer told crowds at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park: “Millions of workers are already facing stark choices – are they willing to work longer hours for less money, or would they rather be unemployed? I don’t see why the bankers at RBS shouldn’t be asked the same question.”

After the event, held yesterday, Bragg said that he objected to RBS plans to pay 1.5bn in bonuses despite having been bailed out by public money and suffering the “worst losses in British commercial history” last year.

He wants Mr Darling to use his power to veto bonuses of more than 25,000.

Bragg said: “The British taxpayer owns 84 per cent of the shares of RBS, so we do have a right to have an opinion about what they do with the money, really that they owe us.

“My message to the bankers at Royal Bank of Scotland is ‘before you pay yourselves any bonuses pay us back’.”

He said that the issue would be “swept under the carpet” without his efforts as no mainstream politicians were willing to tackle the problem.