Election 2017: Lord Sugar reveals £58m tax payment after row with Jeremy Corbyn supporters

The peer tweeted: 'If you admire or trust me. A east end boy done good by honest graft. For the good of the UK I sincerely advise NOT to vote for Corbyn #TRUSTME'

Lord Sugar has thrown himself into a general election debate about taxation by posting a cheque online revealing that he paid almost £59m to HMRC in January.

The Apprentice star’s unorthodox move came after he had been accused of attacking Jeremy Corbyn because he would have to pay tax under a Labour government.

Lord Sugar was granted a lifetime Labour peerage in 2009 but has repeatedly criticised the current party leadership, which he said last month had welcomed “Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers”.

In a last-minute appeal to urge people not to vote for Labour in Thursday’s General Election, Lord Sugar tweeted to his 5.4 million followers: “If you admire or trust me. A east end boy done good by honest graft. For the good of the UK I sincerely advise NOT to vote for Corbyn #TRUSTME”.

After Twitter users retorted that his approach was borne out of self-interest, Lord Sugar added: “To the people who have responded to my advice not to vote for Corbyn saying I want to avoid paying tax. I paid this personally in January.”

He included a photograph of a cheque which he claimed he had sent to HMRC in January for £58,646,028.44.

The tweet has since been deleted for reasons unknown.

Lord Sugar later went on: “Respectfully you can not be serious to place the UK in the hands of Corbyn and the likes the idiots Abbot albeit he sussed she is useless”.

Several twitter users questioned why Lord Sugar had kept a photograph of the cheque with all of his personal details blacked out months after sending it.

Others informed the peer that his address and account details could in fact be identified beneath the black marker. Lord Sugar replied that it did not matter because the account had been closed.

Last month Lord Sugar came out in support of Theresa May’s Conservatives, telling The Sun: “Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms.

“Under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.”

This week he issued a further attack on Mr Corbyn, saying: “I cannot bring myself even to think about him as Prime Minister. He has promised the world with no thought about how to pay for it.”

It is likely that multi-millionaire Lord Sugar, who left the Labour Party in 2015 after protesting its “anti-business” stance, would have to pay more tax if Jeremy Corbyn wins the keys to Downing Street.

Labour has pledged to consider introducing a land value tax to replace council tax and business rates.

Such a levy would likely hit large landowners such as Lord Sugar. Whilst he is famed for his entrepreneurial past as the head of computer company Amstrad, much of his wealth now comes from a property empire.

Labour has also pledged to raise income tax for the top five per cent of earners. The threshold for the current highest income tax band - 45p - would come down from £150,000 to £80,000, while a 50p rate will be reintroduced for people on £123,000 or more.

Lord Sugar’s businesses would also pay more corporation tax under a Labour government. The level would increase to 26 per cent up from the current rate of 19 per cent. During much of Tony Blair’s premiership, which Lord Sugar supported, the rate was 30 per cent. During the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher it was higher still.

The Conservatives have ruled out raising income taxes on the highest earners, while refusing to make the same pledge for taxpayers on lower incomes.

Asked if high earners could vote Conservative without risking an increase in their income tax, defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon told The Telegraph last week: “Yes. You’ve seen our record. We’re not in the business of punishing people for getting on, on the contrary we want people to keep more of their earnings.

“The only way they can be sure their taxes won’t rise is to vote Conservative.”