Cameron AND Balls under fire as ministers play the blame game
THE HSBC tax scandal sparked a political row last night as the Government faced a string of awkward questions about why the bank’s former chairman was enobled and made a minister by David Cameron.
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, City minister at the time of the original scandal, was also under pressure for his failure to deal with tax dodgers.
Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint, HSBC’s former chairman, was appointed a Government trade minister in January 2011, some eight months after the tax authorities received a cache of documents suggesting the bank was helping its customers dodge tax.
In an urgent debate in the House of Commons, shadow treasury minister Shabana Mahmood demanded that Lord Green make a statement about what he knew of the bank’s activites while he was in charge.
She demanded to know whether Lord Green, who was enobled in November 2010, was asked about the documents before his appointment as minister. He left government at the end of 2013.
Ministers defended their record yesterday, saying that as a result of investigations into the list a total of £135million had been repaid to the taxman.
Mr Cameron defended Lord Green’s appointment on a visit to Chester. He said: ‘Stephen Green was an excellent trade minister, he did a good job. But I’d also add no Government has done more than this one to crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.
‘I put it absolutely at the head of my G8 agenda, to make sure there’s more tax transparency, the big companies pay their taxes properly and that we raise money from people previously evading and avoiding tax and will go on doing that as a Government.’
Treasury minister David Gauke said he was ‘not aware of any evidence’ that Lord Green was involved in any of the activities in Switzerland and suggested the peer was ‘clearing up the mess’.
‘Clearly HSBC have got questions to answer,’ he said. ‘ In terms of Stephen Green, I don’t think there is any suggestion or any evidence that he was involved or engaged in some of the behaviour that occurred in the subsidiary in Switzerland.’
Mr Balls, meanwhile, was accused of ‘sucking up’ to bankers and failing to tackle tax dodgers when he was a Treasury minister. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: ‘ I think it would be great if Ed Balls, or indeed Ed Miliband, for once were just to get up and admit they let the banks run riot on their watch.
‘Ed Balls went on a prawn cocktail charm offensive to suck up to the banks and they now have the brass neck to somehow constantly accuse this government of not doing enough.’
Mr Gauke said there was ‘ a lack of grip’ in dealing with tax avoidance schemes between 2005 and 2007 when it became ‘ very common for people to hide assets offshore’.
‘I think there are questions to be answered by the likes of Ed Balls, who was City minister at the time: what was he doing to deal with this type of behaviour and tax evasion by British residents?’ he said.
Mr Gauke added that since 2010, the Government had ‘closed many of the loopholes’ exposed by the documents.
Mr Miliband told Sky News: ‘We need to know why HMRC apparently did not act, apart from at the margins, on the information that they seem to have been given about what was going on.
‘We need to know from the Government why they appointed Stephen Green of HSBC as a trade minister well after this information was passed to HMRC. We cannot have a country where tax avoidance is allowed to carry on and where government just turns a blind eye.’
‘Prawn cocktail charm offensive’
NOTHING to declare, nothing to see here, people: That was the Government’s attitude when the Commons yesterday discussed alleged tax avoidance at HSBC between 2005 and 2007.
as the session began, Tory backbencher Henry Bellingham (NW Norfolk) did something I have not previously seen in the Chamber.
He extracted a bottle of unguent (anti-bacterial gel alcohol?) from his pockets and squirted it on to his left palm, proceeding to rotate his hands in a washing movement.
He could have been a doctor about to conduct some eye-popping probe. Talking of bulgy eyes, where was Ed Balls? Not on parade, Sarn’t Major.
The duty of asking labour’s Urgent Question about The Guardian/BBC TV Panorama group- share story thus fell to a junior labour frontbencher, one Shabana Mahmood. Cue blank looks, whispers of ‘who she?’ and Wikipedia activity in the press gallery. Miss Mahmood is Clare Short’s successor in Birmingham ladywood, though not yet a household name.
Shadow Chancellor Balls was justified in absenting himself because his oppo’, George Osborne, was abroad.
Might Ballsy’s expertise not have been useful to the House? after all, he was the minister in charge of the City at the time of the reported goings- on. Oh no! yesterday’s predictable argybargy in the House was largely confected. The heavies were out on either side to grunt, gurn, groan. On the Tory side, bigboned alec Shelbrooke (Elmet) sat just beyond the gangway, giving it what-for.
Despite his undoubted desire to support his team, Mr Shelbrooke is unlikely ever to make it on to a bikini-clad basketball cheerleading team – at least not until there are advances in pom-pom design.
On the labour side, meanwhile, a knot of hecklers glowered on the back row under the digital clock. They included Kevin Bren- nan (Cardiff W), who has the rare quality of genuine wit.
Near him lurked less lovely Tom Blenkinsop, snarling and blowing forth on behalf of the good people of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Quite what that lovely constituency did to deserve this larky lump for its MP, I have no idea.
HAPPILY, the session was being chaired by Deputy Speaker lindsay Hoyle, who soon imposed order with a minimum of fuss. John Bercow had slipped away, possibly to consider how to answer rising calls for clarity as to whether or not he will honour his promise to serve only nine years as Speaker.
anyway, what about the tax avoidance hoo-hah? Treasury minister David Gauke claimed that it was an old story. Of the 3,600 entities suspected of tax dodges, a third had settled with HMRC, raising £135million.
Mr Gauke said that the Coalition had brought in tax-treaty changes with Switzerland which had raised £2billion. He argued that this was more than the labour Government – in which Mr Balls was such a luminary – ever bothered to do.
labour, for its part, accused the Coalition of being less interested in pursuing tax dodgers than welfare cheats. ‘One law for the poor, one for the rich,’ concluded Dennis Skinner (Bolsover).
Miss Mahmood’s contribution was less than musical, not least because she insists on saying ‘haitch’. That made the repeated ‘HSBCs’ and ‘HMRCs’ rather an ordeal. She did say, however, that the Government’s response to tax avoidance ‘simply doesn’t go far enough’. She is right.
The best response to tax avoidance is to lower taxes – to the point that rich avoiders from other countries come here and spend lots of lolly on British restaurants, houses and Rolls-Royces, raising a fortune in VAT.
There was labour criticism of millionaire lord Green, who used to run Haitch-SBC. ‘He was a very good Trade Minister,’ said Mr Gauke. ‘Was?’ said labour ‘Was? Was?’ Mr Gauke: ‘yes, he is no longer a minister.’
labour MPs looked a bit deflated by this news. I must confess, I also thought the Rev Green was still a minister (he’s a vicar, too, God and Mammon in one – rich as a church mouse!). Just shows you should never believe labour spin.