TV’s Ant Middleton’s HMRC Ban Threatens His Political Aspirations

The former star of SAS: Who Dares Wins, Ant Middleton has been banned from acting as a company director after his company failed to pay over £1m in taxes.

Sway and Starting Limited was created as a means of managing income earned from Middleton’s media appearances. The company, which went into liquidation at the end of 2022, had over £4.5m paid into it between 2020 and 2022.

Unfortunately, the company also failed to pay £384,518 owed in VAT alongside £869,351 in unpaid Corporation Tax.

Middleton and his wife, Emilie, also withdrew almost £3m from the company via a director’s loan account together. When Sway and Starting was eventually liquidated in 2022, the pair still owed the business more than £2.9m. As part of the company’s liquidation agreement, Middleton agreed to pay £300,000 as settlement.

Setback for political run

Both directors have been banned from promoting, forming or managing any other company for four years. It’s thought that this failure to pay taxes could be detrimental to Middleton’s political aspirations.

The former Royal Marines commando has stated that he will run for mayor of London as a Reform UK candidate in 2028. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Middleton wrote,

“You will not deter me, you will not hinder me and you will not stop me running for Mayor of London. I now truly know (I’ve always known) how important and how threatened and intimidated you must be (the truth will do that) […] The msm is well and truly running scared and I think someone else sitting high up is also. My army is bigger than yours!”

Despite Middleton implying that the “msm” or mainstream media is behind the reporting of his directorship disqualification, the initial details actually came from The Insolvency Service directly, who often release reports on high-profile cases.

Middletons failed their “legal and financial duties”

The Insolvency Service’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement Services, Dave Magrath had this to say on the matter,

“Companies not paying the tax they should deprives the government of the money it needs to pay for the country’s defence services, our NHS, schools and universities, and transport systems.

“Ant and Emilie Middleton had legal and financial duties as directors to ensure their company paid the Corporation Tax and VAT it owed. Instead, they were taking millions out of the company at that time”

This incident follows a previous jail sentence for violently assaulting a female police officer as setbacks for Middleton’s mayoral bid.

HMRC debt “needn’t have been a death knell”

As Forbes Burton’s HMRC Negotiation Specialist, Nicholas Troth has saved countless UK companies with tax debts from folding. He commented that “although a combined tax debt of over £1.1m is certainly sizeable, it needn’t have been the death knell for Middleton’s company, nor resulted in he and his wife being disqualified as directors.

“HMRC would always prefer to have something rather than nothing, so can often be open to creating a Time to Pay agreement. These allow businesses to pay back the money they owe in manageable amounts rather than potentially damaging lump sums.

“We’ve been able to negotiate great deals for UK companies that have allowed them to carry on trading while keeping up with their tax requirements at the same time”.

Worried about an upcoming tax bill?

Our Time to Pay negotiation team have helped countless companies when it seemed that large HMRC bills could threaten their existence.

The key is to act quickly. Late payments can add extra penalties onto debt, so it’s crucial that you take action as soon as you see a problem begin to emerge.

Speak to one of our friendly specialists who can give you an idea of how we can help you. Call us on 0800 975 0380, or email advice@forbesburton.com for a free consultation.