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Withdraw plan to cut 170 tax offices, urges McDonnell

SHADOW chancellor John McDonnell called yesterday for plans to close dozens of tax offices to be ditched after a “damning” report was released by Whitehall spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO).

He said HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) proposals to replace 170 offices with 13 regional offices, four “specialist” sites and a London-based headquarters were an “emerging disaster.”

HMRC has been forced to rethink the proposal as the scale of disruption involved — including the loss of around 5,000 jobs — had been underestimated, the NAO revealed.

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