YouTube millionaire Zoella’s furlough
MILLIONAIRE YouTube star Zoella is claiming thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to pay her office manager through the Government’s furlough scheme.
The internet personality – whose real name is Zoe Sugg – is said to have been paid thousands to promote companies such as BMW and Spotify during lockdown. But she placed her £25,000-ayear office manager Holly Macey on the state bail-out programme designed to help companies in trouble.
The use of the furlough scheme by the lifestyle blogger, who is estimated to be worth more than £5million, was blasted as ‘outrageous’ by a Conservative MP. Miss Macey, 26, is believed to be the only employee at A to Z Creatives Ltd, a social media company run by Miss Sugg, to have been placed on the furlough scheme, which was launched in April. It is thought other staff are self-employed.
Miss Macey’s role is said to include organising events for Miss Sugg, 30, and her team as well as taking the star’s pet pug Nala out on walks.
A spokesman for Miss Sugg told MailOnline: ‘I can confirm that the A to Z office manager Holly Macey has benefited from the Government furlough scheme due to the A to Z office being shut since mid March.’
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen condemned Miss Sugg’s use of the furlough scheme as ‘outrageous’ and called for an investigation. He said: ‘It seems very odd to me that a company which operates online should have made this claim as online businesses have done very well during lockdown.’
Miss Sugg is said to charge £20,000 for a sponsored post on Instagram and can fetch up to £25,000 for placing an advert on her popular YouTube videos, where she has 16million subscribers.