The Labour leader yesterday suggested that the Government could impose \u201cdirect rule\u201d on Britain\u2019s overseas territories and crown dependencies, in an effort to curb tax avoidance.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Corbyn was speaking after the high-profile leak of more than 11 million documents held by a law firm in Panama, which shed light on how individuals around the world had used tax havens to conceal their wealth.<\/p>\n
In an embarrassment for the Government, it was found that British territories overseas were at the heart of the tax avoidance arrangements.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Harlow, Mr Corbyn said that ministers needed to make it clear to places such as the British Virgin Islands that they had a responsibility to abide by the UK\u2019s tax laws and he suggested that there was a precedent for Britain to impose direct rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point is that they are not independent territories,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney General, said that a move to remove self-governance was \u201ca bit of a nuclear option\u201d and the consequences to the economies of the territories in question would have to be given careful consideration.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme, the Conservative MP said that there was a danger – if havens in overseas territories were closed down – that people may move their money to other locations where there were far fewer regulations, increasing the risk of money-laundering and criminal activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Labour leader yesterday suggested that the Government could impose \u201cdirect rule\u201d on Britain\u2019s overseas territories and crown dependencies, in an effort to curb tax avoidance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1259,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions\/1259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}