The families of men who killed themselves after being hit with huge tax demands under the so-called loan charge have condemned the election of former Treasury minister Mel Stride as the new chair of the Treasury select committee.

Campaigners said it was a "farce" that the former financial secretary, who spearheaded the controversial policy and took it through Parliament, was now in charge of holding the Treasury to account.

Stride has been criticised in recent months for repeatedly refusing to appear before the House of Lords economic affairs committee on the policy, which aims to claw back money from people who were once paid through loans not wages.

The loan charge, which has been linked to seven suicides as well as bankruptcies and marriage breakdowns, has left more than 50,000 people facing huge tax demands on income dating back 20 years.

An independent review into the policy was ordered by prime minister Boris Johnson and is due to report next month.

Stride was elected chair of the Treasury committee on Wednesday in a ballot of MPs, beating three other candidates.

William*, the brother of a man in his mid-forties who killed himself in September after receiving tax demands from HM Revenue and Customs, told BuzzFeed News he was "gobsmacked". We have changed his name at the family's request.



"There is something wrong with the system when the architect of something as controversial as the loan charge gets to scrutinise his own policy decisions," he said.

"Mel Stride's appointment as chair will inevitably call into question the impartiality of the Treasury committee. If the public want to know what a conflict of interest looks like, then look no further."

Gayle's father — an engineer in his late sixties — died by suicide in November 2018. He left a long letter outlining his "shame" over the loan charge. Gayle did not want us to publish her family name.

She told BuzzFeed News that Stride's election was "unbelievable and insulting".

"How can this be allowed?" she said. "Having heard Mel Stride's callous responses to anyone who mentioned the confirmed loan charge suicides, I cannot see how he can be trusted to be impartial when scrutinising HMRC about the loan charge."

The government say the contractors affected — including IT workers, engineers, nurses, and social workers — used "disguised remuneration schemes" to avoid tax, but many workers were assured by accountants at the time that it was legal and some were told they had to use the schemes to keep their job.

Labour MP Wes Streeting, a Treasury committee member who has raised serious concerns about the loan charge, warned there must be "no conflict of interest".