An odd STEP

This is a slightly childish point, but I’ve convinced myself it’s one worth making nonetheless.

The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) has been co-ordinating responses amongst professional bodies to the government’s clampdown on trusts, and its favoured outlet has been the FT. On two occasions that I can remember the paper has been better briefed on what the group was about to say than other people.

That’s fine, to an extent. It irritates other journalists when the FT gets things first, but we all benefit from those kinds of exclusives in various respects.

The point really is that STEP, amongst others, is arguing that ordinary hard-working people are being hit by the move, and not just the super-rich, as HM Revenue & Customs allege.

If that’s the point, why not leak the releases to The Sun or The Mirror, rather than a paper which caters to the better off and, dare I say it, those who might on occasion use expensive schemes to avoid tax?