David Cameron under pressure to say whether or not his family has money in tax havens

Cameron facing renewed pressure over the Panama Papers leak as Jeremy Corbyn is due to demand that the Government stop 'pussyfooting around on tax dodging'

(AP)

David Cameron is facing growing pressure to reveal whether or not his family’s wealth is still held in tax havens after the leaked Panama Papers reportedly revealed his father’s involvement in an offshore fund that allegedly paid no tax in the UK for 30 years.

After the leak of papers from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, Downing Street repeatedly insisted that the question of whether the Cameron family still held money in Blairmore Holdings Inc was “a private matter.”

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is due to renew the attack, with an intervention in which he is expected to say there cannot be "one set of rules for the wealthy elite and another for the rest of us".

Launching Labour’s local government campaign in Harlow, Mr Corbyn will say: “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.

"Tax havens are sucking tax revenues out of our own country and many others, fuelling inequality and short-changing our public services and our people. This unfairness and abuse must stop. No more lip service. The richest must pay their way.

“The Government needs to stop pussyfooting around on tax dodging.”

And speaking to the BBC, Dominic Grieve, the Conservative MP and former Attorney General, said: "With public figures we do have a need for transparency."

The row is likely to prove doubly embarrassing for Mr Cameron because he has frequently made calls for greater transparency to expose offshore tax avoidance and is due to host an international anti-corruption summit in London next month.

In June 2013, ahead of a G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, he had promised: “I’m going to push for international agreements to fight the scourge of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. That means automatic exchange of information between our tax authorities – so those who to evade tax have nowhere to hide.”

But UK tax justice campaigners have now reacted with dismay as the Panama Papers leak reportedly suggested that Britain appeared to be at the heart of a shadowy global network of companies used by the super-rich to hide their wealth.

Half of the companies mentioned in the leaked Panama Papers were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

The UK was also second only to Hong Kong in a list of international jurisdictions where the banks, law firms and other middlemen associated with the Panama Papers operate. Six Conservative peers, three ex-MPs and several Tory donors also had links to tax haven networks, the papers allegedly show.

In further evidence of the UK’s centrality to the global networks uncovered in the papers, three British and Channel Island banks – HSBC, Coutts and Rothschild – were named among the 10 banks that most frequently request offshore companies for their clients.

Toby Quantrill, an expert in international tax avoidance at the Christian Aid charity said the leaks exposed to the extent to which UK-based middlemen and UK-administered tax havens are “at the very heart of this rotten system”.

And the question of offshore funds was made very personal to the Prime Minister when it was reported that his father had been a director of Blairmore.

The offshore fund was alleged to have hired what was called a small army of Bahamas residents – including a part-time bishop – to sign paperwork in what may have been an effort to avoid paying UK tax.

Blairmore’s 2006 investment prospectus also stated: "The directors intend that the affairs of the fund should be managed and conducted so that it does not become resident in the UK for UK taxation purposes. Accordingly... the fund will not be subject to UK corporation tax or income tax on its profits."

There is no suggestion that retaining Bahamas residents in the way Blairmore allegedly did was illegal. Other offshore funds also made similar arrangements, and Mossack Fonseca has strongly denied any involvement in or knowledge of tax evasion.

Clients of Blairmore may also have been using the fund simply to preserve their privacy, and HMRC has told The Independent it could not confirm whether or not the affairs of Blairmore Holdings would be investigated.

However, Jennie Granger HMRC’s director-general of enforcement and compliance has said that tax inspectors have asked the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to share the leaked data with HMRC, and pledged to “closely examine this data”.

This means there is a possibility that Blairmore Holdings’ tax affairs could come under scrutiny.

Mr Cameron has already faced criticism for failing to secure reforms in all but two of the UK’s overseas territories and Crown Dependencies, which see would see major beneficiaries of offshore companies named in public registers.

The Prime Minister wrote to leaders of countries that operate as tax havens as far back as 2014 urging action. He is now facing pressure to take a harder line, and legislate for greater tax transparency in UK territories and dependencies.

Mr Quantrill said Mr Cameron had one month to take action ahead of May’s anti-corruption conference in London.

“The Prime Minister has the power to clean up a major chunk of the global financial system and in the light of the Panama papers, he should use it,” he said. “The UK must take immediate steps to reveal the real owners of business in the territories that we control so the public can know the truth.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said yesterday that the Government was working with UK overseas territories and Crown Dependencies on “implementation” of public registers of companies’ beneficiaries.

“The government has taken a range of action to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and aggressive tax planning…Through the HMRC we have already been carrying out an intensive investigation of off-shore companies including in Panama. Clearly this data may be able to assist with that. That’s why HMRC asked the ICIJ for the information and they will act on it swiftly.

“We have been taking action to crack down on offshore evasion. It was the PM that put this front and centre of our G8 presidency and led global efforts to improve action on tax and transparency," they said

HMRC insisted that all Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories had made "significant progress" on tax transparency.

In other global repercussions from the exposé, which names 12 current or former heads of state and at least 60 individuals linked to current or former world leaders:

Tax authorities in countries around the world, including France, Australia, Holland and Austria and the UK, launched investigations into hundreds of individuals and banks implicated in the documents.

Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson rejected calls to resign after being accused of hiding millions of dollars in an offshore company in which he did not declare an interest upon entering Parliament.

The Kremlin dismissed claims that a secret network of loans and offshore deals worth $2bn (£1.4bn) had enriched members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle as politically-motivated “Putinophobia”.