David Cameron has responded to calls for an investigation into his tax arrangements, following the huge offshore accounts leak dubbed the “Panama Papers”.
He said:
“The two things I’m responsible for are my own financial affairs and for the tax system of the United Kingdom. In terms of my own financial affairs, I own no shares. I have a salary as Prime Minister, and I have some savings, which I get some interest from. I have a house, which we used to live in, which we now let out while we’re living in Downing Street. And that’s all I have. I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that . . .
“I would say that no government, no prime minister, has done more to make sure we crack down on tax evasion, on aggressive tax avoidance, on aggressive tax planning, both here in the UK and internationally. We have recovered billions of pounds in our country by changing tax regulation and rules in budget after budget.”
His affairs have been called into question in light of details revealed about his father’s offshore fund.
The PM responds to Sky’s @faisalislam on #PanamaLeaks: “I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds” https://t.co/N3cshLfpnZ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 5, 2016
The Prime Minister added:
“The investigation we need, first of all, is for HMRC, our tax authority, to use all the information that is coming out of Panama to make sure that everything is done to make sure that companies and individuals are paying their taxes properly.
“In many ways what’s coming out of Panama is actually what we’re introducing in our own country, which is a register of beneficial ownership so everyone can see who owns what company.”
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