Sources close to Edward Timpson MP have advised me that the morning that HMRC announced the closure of HMRC Crewe, Mr Timpson travelled straight up to the office from London to meet his constituents and the campaign team that he had worked with over the last 6 months.Local managers were told in advance, and Mr Timpson had met with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (FST) twice in the preceding two days.
However, because Mr Timpson hadn't specifically requested permission from the FST and Workforce Change that morning, a regional manager in another office ordered his ejection.
Mr Timpson lodged a protest with the FST, and his staff were told that the FST would apologise in the lobby.
HMRC seemed to have forgotten to tell the press that bit.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Pure Parkinson's Law this is.
ReplyDeleteDon't employ rivals. Get rid of anyone who may pose a threat or question your tactics or motives.
Pretty soon all you'll have left is a few untrained call centre workers too scared to take decisions.
Without an experienced and knowledgeable workforce, how will HMRC collect the taxes? At the point of a gun?
"HMRC seemed to have forgotten to tell the press that bit." But hang on, Timpson's people don't seem to have told the Crewe Chronicle about the FST office's reply, either! Either that, or the paper didn't consider it newsworthy. Both of these possibilities seem unlikely if the FST's reply had been issued before the article was written.
ReplyDeleteThe Chronicle article says that Timpson "has now complained to the Financial Secretary Stephen Timm's office...". The wording of this suggests to me that the complaint was the last thing that happened before the paper went to press, and that the reply wasn't issued until later.