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Corruption
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The
so-called Panama Papers are sold to us as a vast leak chronicling the
financial misdeeds of the rich and powerful. But is this really the
case? Certainly we are given insight into the secretive world of
offshore banking, but is it a complete and balanced story? One
interpretation of the Panama Papers is the West targeting its
enemies.
CrossTalking
with Mitch Feierstein, Alexander Mercouris, and Pepe Escobar.
Panama Papers Cameron faces probe over tax scandal
Critics
last night called for the PM to quit as he
admitted having had £30,000 in shares in his late dad’s offshore
firm.
Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed Mr Cameron had “misled the public”
and “lost the trust of the British people”.
And
Labour MP John Mann said he would report the Prime Minister to the
parliamentary watchdog for not revealing the shares earlier. He said:
“He’s got to resign.”
The
storm follows the Panama Papers leak of millions of files revealing
how the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes.
There
is no suggestion Mr Cameron or his father Ian have done anything
illegal.
But
pressure piled on the PM last night as bookies halved odds that he
would step down this year.
Celebrities
joined the calls for him to quit.
Pop
star Lily Allen said: “I will be protesting at No10 tomorrow.”
Meanwhile
Mr Cameron was mocked on social media.
A
meme of TV priest Father Ted declared: “That money was just resting
in my account.”
Corbyn says David Cameron has 'misled the public' and lost their trust
Labour leader calls for the Prime Minister to give a "full account of all his private financial dealings" to Parliament
8
April, 2016
David
Cameron has “misled the public” and “lost the trust of the
British people”, Jeremy Corbyn has claimed amid the furore over the
Prime Minister's stake in his father’s offshore fund.
In
a fierce attack the Labour leader demanded that Mr Cameron make a
statement to Parliament on Monday to give a "full account of all
his private financial dealings", claiming the revelations raised
questions about "personal integrity".
Mr
Cameron, who admitted on Thursday that he made a £19,000 profit from
selling his shareholding in Bahama-based Blairmore Holdings in 2010,
is also facing a parliamentary investigation into whether he should
have declared the windfall in the Commons register of interests.
In
his first intervention since Mr Cameron’s disclosure, Mr Corbyn
said: “It took five weasel-worded statements in five days for the
Prime Minister to admit that he has personally profited from an
undeclared Caribbean tax haven investment deal.
“His
determination to conceal that arrangement over many years raises
serious questions over public trust in his office and his willingness
to be straight with the public.
“Tolerance
of tax avoidance and tax havens, and inaction on tax evasion, is
denying funds to the public purse and leads directly to cuts in
services and benefits that are hurting millions of people in Britain.
“The
Prime Minister has lost the trust of the British people. He must now
give a full account of all his private financial dealings and make a
statement to Parliament next week. Only complete openness from the
Prime Minister, and decisive action against tax avoidance and
evasion, can now deal with the issues at the heart of this scandal.”
The
Labour MP John Mann, who has called for the Prime Minister to resign,
said he would ask the parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn
Hudson, to examine whether Mr Cameron should have declared his
profits from the sale of his trust shares in the Commons register of
interests.
A
Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister’s interests
have always been recorded in line with the rules as they stood at the
time.”
But
Mr Mann said: “No interpretation of his actions could conclude that
he has acted in an ‘open and frank’ way, in line with the code of
conduct for MP.
“It
is only now, with the Panama revelations, that David Cameron has been
forced to admit that he did not register his financial interests.”
The
move was backed by the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, who
described Mr Cameron’s actions as “morally murky” and said he
was sure there was a case for investigation.
Meanwhile,
Labour MPs called for other Government ministers to publish their tax
returns, after both Mr Cameron and Mr Corbyn committed to do so.
Wes
Streeting, a Labour member of the House of Commons Treasury Select
Committee, said that political leaders needed to reassure the public
in the wake of the Panama leaks.
“People
around the world are asking their political leaders to display
openness and transparency about their tax affairs, to work out if
they have a conflict of interest, and that they mean it when they say
want to crack down on avoidance and evasion,” he said.
“In
the UK, that particularly includes the Chancellor and those who
aspire to be Prime Minister.”
Chancellor
George Osborne, Home Secretary Theresa May, Business Secretary Sajid
Javid and Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond have all been contacted
by The Independent to clarify whether they will publish their tax
returns. As of Friday evening, only Mr Hammond’s spokesperson had
replied, saying Mr Hammond was “travelling abroad and not
contactable”
The
political fall-out from the leak of the Panama Papers from law firm
Mossack Fonseca was underlined by a YouGov poll showing Mr Cameron’s
personal approval ratings had fallen below Jeremy Corbyn’s for the
first time.
It
also found that that 56 per cent of the public did not believe the
Prime Minister had been “open and honest” about his tax affairs,
with just 18 per cent taking the opposite view.
Downing
Street is scrambling to draw a line under the affair, which has
wrecked Mr Cameron’s hopes of spending the week focussing on the
European Union referendum membership campaign. It is expected to
publish the Prime Minister’s tax returns over the last six years by
Sunday.
Mr
Cameron and his wife, Samantha, bought their holding in Blairmore in
1997 for £12,497 and sold it for £31,500 shortly before he became
Prime Minister in 2010.
Income
tax was paid on the dividends, but the profit on the sale was just
below the capital gains tax threshold for a couple.
The
Commons rules at the time of Mr Cameron’s sale said such holdings
were “not generally registrable”, although they reminded MPs that
the “general principle” of the register was “openness”.
Protesters
against Mr Cameron’s links to offshore funds are planning to
demonstrate outside Downing Street on Saturday
‘Cameron shouldn’t just resign… he should be sent to prison!’ Ken Livingstone tells RT
Prime
Minister David Cameron should be sent to prison for profiting from
shares in his father’s offshore investment fund, former Mayor of
London Ken Livingstone has told RT.
Livingstone
said the Panama Papers scandal is “incredibly damaging” for the
PM.
Belgium: Assange says Panama Papers not published in full due to legal fears
WikiLeaks
co-founder Julian Assange said European media organisations were not
publishing the Panama Papers in full due to fears of litigation at
the hands of oligarchs, during a Skype conference with journalists
that was broadcast in Brussels, Thursday.
"The
experience from the United States, it has been disastrous,"
Assange said, explaining that "trade secrets law is used to
create taxes on publishers, who publish quotes - say from internal
emails: like we've seen here with the Pentagon Papers - the Panama
Papers."
US
State Department Unable to Explain Difference Between Panama &
Snowden Revelations
The
US State Department has stated that it supported the work of the
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, who published an
archive of Panamanian documents, which contains information from the
law firm Mossack Fonseca. The experts' attention was drawn to the
fact that previously in such a situation, the State Department took
the opposite position: in 2013, the US government called Edward
Snowden's revelations a betrayal, and said that the declassification
of information is a crime.
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