So, sue me! ‘Horrid’ Miliband set to accept Fink challenge
After calling Cameron ‘a dodgy prime minister’, Labour leader ‘ready’ to risk libel action by Tory treasurer

Ed Miliband is ready to risk being sued for libel by repeating his accusation of “tax-dodging” against the Tory Party treasurer Lord Fink outside the protection of the Commons where he is covered by parliamentary privilege.
Lord Fink wrote to Miliband last night saying: “I challenge you to repeat your allegation outside the House of Commons – or to withdraw it publically.”
According to his aides, Miliband will pick up the gauntlet and - according to his aides - repeat the allegations in a speech in London today. It raises the intriguing prospect of a future prime minister being landed in the High Court after polling day.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In one of the stormiest sessions of Prime Minister's Questions in this parliament, Miliband mounted a ferocious personal attack on David Cameron for giving rewards to tax-avoiding Tory donors. He said Cameron was “bang to rights”, adding: “He can't get away from it – he's a dodgy Prime Minister, surrounded by dodgy donors...There's something rotten at the heart of the Tory Party and it's you.”
The Daily Mail reports that Cameron was overheard telling Conservative ministers as he left the Chamber: “Ed was personally horrid to me because he was losing.”
During the Commons exchanges, Miliband said: “Let’s take Stanley Fink who gave £3 million to the Conservative Party. He [Cameron] actually appointed him as Treasurer of the Tory Party and gave him a peerage for good measure.
“So now can he explain what steps he is going to take to find out about the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink?”
In his letter, Lord Fink insisted he only opened an account with HSBC in Switzerland because he was working in Switzerland at the time for the Man Group, and it was not to avoid UK taxes.
Asked on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning whether Miliband's camp thought that Lord Fink had given a convincing answer to the allegations, Norman Smith, the BBC’s assistant political editor, said: “Convincing or not, Ed Miliband stands by them.
“More to the point, he is going to repeat them in public at a speech in London because they [Labour] take the view the allegations stack up, that Lord Fink was involved in tax avoidance activities.
"They believe his denial referred very specifically to his account with HSBC Swiss and there are questions about other accounts he holds.”
Any legal action against Miliband would likely depend on the actual terms the Labour leader uses in his speech today: ‘tax avoidance’ is not a criminal offence, though ‘tax evasion’ is. In the Commons, Miliband limited his charge against Lord Fink to tax avoidance with the use of an HSBC Swiss bank account.
But Miliband's attack puts the Conservative party’s attitude to tax avoidance - and Whitehall’s failure to probe HSBC’s complicity in tax avoidance - right at the heart of the election battle, according to The Guardian. Miliband may be happy to be sued to underline the point.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
France's war on 'Algerian Nutella'
Under The Radar A wildly popular hazelnut spread is causing a storm across the channel
-
John Kenney's 6 favorite books that will break your heart softly
Feature The novelist recommends works by John le Carré, John Kennedy Toole, and more
-
Book reviews: 'Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America' and 'How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time'
Feature How William F. Buckley Jr brought charm to conservatism and a deep dive into the wellness craze
-
Angela Rayner: Labour's next leader?
Today's Big Question A leaked memo has sparked speculation that the deputy PM is positioning herself as the left-of-centre alternative to Keir Starmer
-
Is Starmer's plan to send migrants overseas Rwanda 2.0?
Today's Big Question Failed asylum seekers could be removed to Balkan nations under new government plans
-
Ed Miliband, Tony Blair and the climate 'credibility gap'
Talking Point Comments by former PM Tony Blair have opened up Labour to attacks over its energy policies
-
Has Starmer put Britain back on the world stage?
Talking Point UK takes leading role in Europe on Ukraine and Starmer praised as credible 'bridge' with the US under Trump
-
Left on read: Labour's WhatsApp dilemma
Talking Point Andrew Gwynne has been sacked as health minister over messages posted in a Labour WhatsApp group
-
New Year's Honours: why the controversy?
Today's Big Question London Mayor Sadiq Khan and England men's football manager Gareth Southgate have both received a knighthood despite debatable records
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations