Minister asks media for Panama Papers

THE Guardian and the BBC are refusing to hand over the leaked Panama Papers to the taxman, a Treasury minister said last night.

Financial Secretary David Gauke said HMRC had asked for the 11.5million documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca to be handed over for ‘thorough’ investigation. The data needed to be checked against what is already being probed by the tax authorities, he told the Daily Telegraph.

A BBC spokesman said it had received no requests from HMRC and that the raw data was held by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

A spokesman for Guardian News and Media said requests for the data should go to the ICIJ.

The ICIJ said it had a ‘long-standing policy’ of not handing over such material.