Former British Deputy PM Nick Clegg facing flak for joining Facebook

London: Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who earlier criticised Facebook for paying too little tax in Britain, is now facing flak for joining the social network as its head of global affairs, the media reported.

The former Liberal Democrat MP will start working for Facebook on Monday and move with his family to Palo Alto in California in the New Year, The Telegraph reported this week. Clegg will earn 1 million pounds a year in his new role at Facebook, which paid only 7.4 million pounds in tax in Britain last year despite recording 1.3 billion pounds in sales, the report added.

A couple of years ago, Clegg, who lost his seat in Parliament in the 2017 general elections, said that he was not “especially bedazzled by Facebook”. “Nor am I sure that companies such as Facebook really pay all the tax they could? though that’s as much the fault of governments who still haven’t got their tax act together,” he was quoted as saying. And now his acceptance of the Facebook role has not gone down well with his former party colleagues as well as other lawmakers in Britain. He has been accused of hypocrisy. (IANS)