Jeremy Corbyn has a radical solution for tackling tax havens
LONDON -- Britain's opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn says Britain could impose direct rule on tax havens like the British Virgin islands, following a massive leak of tax records from a Panama law firm.
More than a half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the law firm Mossack Fonseca were registered in the British Virgin Islands, the massive data leak showed.
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The Labour party leader says David Cameron's government should be able to ensure that British overseas territories and Crown dependencies follow UK tax law:
"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," he said.
"If it's become a place where systematic evasion and short changing of the public in this country, then something has to be done about it," he told the BBC.
He added that imposing direct rules on places like the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin islands could be done "within days".
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Corbyn also called on David Cameron to "stop pussyfooting around on tax dodging" following the Panama Papers leak, which named several high profile British officials.
Remarks released ahead of a Labour Party event on Tuesday morning, show that Corbyn was expected to say the revelations are an example of unfairness in British society.
“The publication of the Panama Papers this week drives home what more and more people feel, that there is one rule for the rich and another for everyone else,” he was to say.
“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.”
Corbyn also lambasted cuts to the HM Revenue & Customs.
“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 was expected to say.
Cameron's late father, Ian Cameron, was reported to be among British figures who've had offshore assets, according to the Guardian.
A stockbroker and multimillionaire, Ian Cameron helped create and develop Blairmore Holdings Inc. in Panama in 1982 and was involved in the investment fund until his 2010 death.
He left a fortune of £2.74 million ($3.89 million) in his will, from which David Cameron received the sum of £300,000 ($426,133). His dealings were revealed four years ago in a Guardian investigation.
The Prime Minister has so far refused to comment on the revelations.
His spokeswoman told ITV News: "That is a private matter, I am focused on what the government is doing."
Conservative Party MP Dominic Grieve told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday that he understood David Cameron had no shares in offshore companies.
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