Leicester TUSC supporters protesting outside Boots over tax avoidance, photo by Leicester SP (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
Michael Barker, Leicester Socialist Party
Over £6 million has been stolen from the people of Leicester by Boots since 2007. This shocking sum was calculated from national figures showing the chemist failed to pay £1.2 billion of tax.
Campaigners working with TUSC protested outside Boots’ main store in Leicester on 7 February. The city’s TUSC councillors recently had the council sign up to the national campaign “Towns Against Tax Dodging”.
Cllr Wayne Naylor, a member of TUSC-affiliated Leicester Independent Councillors Against Cuts, said: “There is no reason why the super-rich should refuse to pay their tax.
“As Boots gets more than 40% of its UK revenue from the taxpayer, through NHS prescription dispensing and wholesale services, it is particularly troubling that the government continues to tell us there is no money left to fund the NHS.”
TUSC supporters also sent solidarity to thousands of Boots employees fighting to have their union, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association, recognised by bullying management. Bosses are using outdated employment law to block the move and drain the union’s resources.
TUSC is the only group standing in May’s elections that stands for all workers’ right to collective bargaining, and for making the bosses pay all their tax!
