Saturday 11 November 2017

Paradise Papers: immediate action needed

John McDonnell is right to say that the Queen should "open up her full financial records" in the wake of the Paradise Papers scandal (John McDonnell calls on Queen to release financial records amid Paradise papers leak, 11/11/17). The revelation that the Duchy of Lancaster invested millions of the Queen`s money in a Cayman Islands` offshore portfolio which "are not set out in the royal household`s annual statements" begs obvious questions about the quality of advice being currently given.
 What the Papers also revealed  were details about how the British government had been influenced by offshore lobbyists in the lead up to the 2013 G8 summit, whose themes were tax evasion and transparency. Whilst neither May or Hammond will do anything about this, parliamentary committees could and should. Labour MPs should be demanding answers regarding what in the Papers was called "superb penetration of UK policymakers" by lobbyists on behalf of the International Financial Centres Forum (IFC) which represents offshore law firms. It`s little wonder the G8 measures on evasion and transparency in 2013 were so ineffective. Shouldn`t the Public Accounts Committee be demanding to question Shona Riach, the senior Treasury official, who had a "crucial meeting", according to the Papers, with IFC representatives two days before the summit? Similar questions must be asked of David Gauke, the then exchequer secretary to the Treasury, who also had meetings with IFC prior to the summit.

 It`s clearly not only the Queen who has been embarrassed by the leaks, but the sad fact is that serial tax avoiders, like Tory donor Lord Ashcroft, and racing driver tipped for knighthood, Lewis Hamilton, reveal no shame when named! The little embarrassment caused to the super-rich by the Papers show laws must be changed.

No comments:

Post a Comment