Victoria Beckham Criticized for furloughing her staff

Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham was slammed on social media after furloughing 30 of her staff at her struggling fashion label – despite claims of having a staggering family fortune of £335 million.


The wife of football Icon, David Beckham whose handbag collection alone is thought to be worth £1.5 million, is to claim what could amount to tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to pay a quarter of her employees under the Government’s job retention scheme.


Staff from across her fashion label – which charges £1,500 for a dress – have received letters explaining that they would be paid 80 per cent of their salaries by the Government, in line with Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s scheme to help firms during the pandemic.


Critics slammed Mrs Beckham for taking advantage of the taxpayer-funded scheme rather than using her own wealth to pay staff, having recently bought a penthouse in Miami for £20million with her husband.


Employees in the marketing department and customer services have been affected, as well as staff at her Mayfair shop which closed after Britain went into lockdown according to mail Online.





Two weeks ago, Mrs Beckham and her ex-footballer husband David splashed out £17

million on a penthouse in Miami to add to their impressive property portfolio, which includes a £25 million mansion in Holland Park, West London, and a £6 million barn conversion in the Cotswolds, where the family has been living during the lockdown.


Mrs Beckham has been flooding social media with pictures of her family as they stay at home. One snap showed her making a lemon drizzle cake and rigatoni pasta.


Mrs Beckham, who turned 46 on Friday, also posted a picture of herself clapping for carers for her 26 million Instagram followers to see. A source close to the family told The Mail on Sunday: ‘One minute she and David are posting pictures of very expensive bottles of red wine on Instagram, the next she’s using the furlough scheme, funded by taxpayers.


‘She has also been seen clapping the brave NHS workers, but by using the Government scheme she is taking public money when she has hundreds of millions in the bank. It seems very ill-advised.’


Mrs Beckham’s eponymous company, based in Hammersmith, West London, has not made a profit since it launched in 2008.


In 2018, it suffered losses of £12.3 million. The year before that, Mrs Beckham lost £10.3 million, but the business was propped up by her 44-year-old husband.


Despite the clearly unprofitable business model, Mrs Beckham is determined to keep the label going.


Mrs Beckham has a collection of Birkin handbags, which are understood to range from £10,000 to £80,000, and regularly uses private jets.



Last month, just two weeks before lockdown, the Beckhams reportedly spent £100,000 on a 21st birthday bash for their eldest child, Brooklyn.


A spokesman for Mrs Beckham said last night: ‘We are working hard to ensure our much-valued Victoria Beckham team are protected during this unsettled time by keeping our business healthy.


‘Having carefully assessed all our options, we made the decision to furlough a proportion of staff on an enhanced package.’

Tory MP Robert Halfon said last night: ‘At a time when millions are struggling, it would be good if multi-millionaires helped the country rather than seeking to profit from hard-pressed taxpayers.’


Fellow Tory MP Tom Hunt added: ‘It is extremely regrettable that a prominent figure in the fashion world has taken this step, given the many selfless acts we are seeing across the country every single day.’

4/19/2020 - 1:01pm culled from Mail Online