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JO SONG TAX PLEA

Stars plead for VAT on Jo Cox tribute to be waived so all money spent on single goes to good causes

Friends of the murdered MP will pay tribute with a cover of Rolling Stones hit 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'

STARS want VAT waived on the tribute record to murdered MP Jo Cox.

All its sales cash should go to good causes, the Chancellor was told last night.

 Stars have asked Chancellor Philip Hammond to waive VAT on the charity single in memory of murdered MP Jo Cox
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Stars have asked Chancellor Philip Hammond to waive VAT on the charity single in memory of murdered MP Jo Cox

Music stars and MPs have joined forces to perform the song in memory of the murdered Labour backbencher.

Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, KT Tunstall and David Gray appear on the cover of The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

But Philip Hammond was last night urged to carry out a “terrific gesture” to help raise cash for the the Jo Cox Foundation - which will raise funds for causes backed by the late MP.

 The single will raise cash for the Jo Cox Foundation, which will work with some of Jo's preferred charities
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The single will raise cash for the Jo Cox Foundation, which will work with some of Jo's preferred charitiesCredit: Getty Images

Shadow Arts Minister Kevin Brennan, who is in the band, last night said: “I know that the Treasury has waived VAT in the past for charity singles.

The Labour MP said: “It would be a terrific gesture if Philip Hammond could so the same again. This record will support the work that Jo Cox carried out during her short lifetime and every penny raised will be devoted to those good causes.”

Hammond has already waived the VAT for this year’s X Factor winner.

 The Treasury has waived VAT for charity singles in the past, including this year's X Factor winner's single
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The Treasury has waived VAT for charity singles in the past, including this year's X Factor winner's singleCredit: MARK STGEORGE

 

A source said a formal application has been sent to the Treasury for officials to consider the request ahead of the release this Friday.

The single  is bookies’ 5-2 favourite to be Christmas No1. The chart-topper will be revealed on December 23.

KT Tunstall said mum-of-two Jo, 41, would have been “really happy at something so joyful being done in her name”.

Mum-of-two Jo was killed by white supremacist Thomas Mair days before the EU referendum.

He murdered the 41-year-old as she attended a surgery in her Batley and Spen, west Yorkshire, constituency. He received a whole life sentence at the Old Bailey last month.

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