After the outrage came the tax returns. As we stated last week, the kind of behaviour revealed in the so-called Panama Papers, the biggest leak of financial documents in history, severely threatens the social contract on which the fairness of our tax system and the legitimacy of states rely. Belatedly realising this after a week of misjudged statements, the Prime Minister released his tax information since 2009 on 10 April and was quickly joined by other senior politicians. It is a development that we welcome.
In so doing, David Cameron will have hoped to draw a line under the row. Yet the consequences of his befuddled initial response to the leak will linger. Had he said early last Monday what it took him until the following Thursday evening to say – that he held shares in his father’s offshore fund until 2010, paying full income tax on the dividends, and then sold them – the Prime Minister would at least have demonstrated that he understood the impetus for the public outrage over his tax affairs.
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