The government should consider imposing direct orders on British overseas territories and crown dependencies to stop them acting as tax havens, Jeremy Corbyn has argued.
The Labour leader, speaking to the BBC in Harlow, Essex before a speech to launch the party’s local election manifesto in which he will accuse the prime minister of “pussyfooting” on tax matters – said the Cameron family’s own tax affairs should form part of an investigation into offshore avoidance.
Corbyn argued that the government should tell administrations in places like the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands: “Hang on, you are a government of a British dependent territory, a crown territory, you must obey UK tax law, you must not become a harbour for tax avoidance and tax evasion.”
There was precedence for direct rule to be imposed, Corbyn argued, and it should be done. He said: “The point is that they are not independent territories. They are self-governing, yes, but they are British crown dependent territories. Therefore, surely, there has to be an observance of UK tax law in those places.
“If they have become a place for systematic evasion and short-changing the public in this country, then something has to be done about it. Either those governments comply or a next step has to be taken.”
This could be done “almost immediately”, Corbyn said.
Amid a global focus on the issue following a vast leak of tax records from a Panama law firm, Cameron has faced scrutiny as these files revealed his late father, Ian, ran an offshore fund that avoided ever having to pay tax in Britain.
‘Questions for Cameron’
Asked if Cameron himself had questions to answer, Corbyn replied: “Well, there are questions that have been placed there about his family’s estate and about his father’s investment.
“Obviously, they must be part of that investigation. The investigation must be independent, fast, thorough and fair so that we get to the bottom of this.”
He added: “People who have made a great deal of money over decades by siphoning their wealth out of Britain, putting it in a tax haven somewhere around the world, are actually short-changing the people of this country.”
Asked if he would publish his own tax returns, Corbyn replied: “No problem whatsoever in my tax returns … My income is what I earn as a member of parliament.”
The Labour leader argued that necessary openness trumped worries over financial privacy. He said: “I think we need to know where somebody’s income comes from, and in that sense it should be open and above board. The public need to have confidence that their representatives in parliament and ministers are getting their income from honest and open sources and as members of parliament.”
At his speech in Harlow, Corbyn said that the publication of the Panama Papers “drives home what more and more people feel, that there is one rule for the rich and another for everyone else”.
He added: “It is time to get tough on tax havens. Britain has a huge responsibility. Many of those tax havens are British overseas territories or crown dependencies.
“The government needs to stop pussyfooting around on tax dodging. There cannot be one set of tax rules for the wealthy elite and another for the rest of us. This unfairness and abuse must stop. No more lip service. The richest must pay their way.”
Reverberations from the leaked files have been felt worldwide, particularly in Iceland, Russia and Ukraine. Revelations about the wealth amassed by Vladimir Putin’s inner circle prompted strong denials from the Kremlin. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, claimed the president was the victim of “Putinphobia”.
France, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, India, the Netherlands and Norway are among countries to announce official investigations within hours of the publication of the leak, and many more could follow in the coming days and weeks.
In his speech, Corbyn was also due to criticise cuts to HM Revenue & Customs, saying the government needed to provide extra resources to the tax authorities to go after those who think they are above the law.
“It is unacceptable that while councils’ budgets are cut and the services on which people rely are being cut back, the super-rich elite dodge their taxes and flout the rules,” he is to say.
Since the publication of the documents, Cameron has been under fire for failing to live up to the tough words of his promises to crack down on tax avoidance and tax evasion and to bring transparency to offshore jurisdictions.
Despite pressure from the UK, most crown dependencies and overseas territories have resisted moves for a central public register of beneficial owners of companies registered on their land.
On Monday, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said Downing Street had responded to allegations about Cameron Sr in the past. Asked if there was still any family money invested in the fund, she said: “That is a private matter.” She said the prime minister had “taken a range of action to tackle evasion and aggressive tax avoidance”.