London: British Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of “hypocrisy” after admitting that he owned shares in the Panamanian trust set up by his late father Ian Cameron, before selling them for over 30,000 pounds in 2010. After three days of stalling and four partial statements issued by Downing Street, Cameron in an interview to ITV News on Thursday confessed that he owned shares in the tax haven fund, which he sold for 31,500 pounds just before becoming prime minister in 2010.
Cameron said that he made a profit on around 5,000 units he owned in Blairmore Investment Trust, but insisted the money was subjected to British tax rules. He also divulged details of his 300,000 pounds inheritance and said recent criticism of his father was “unfair”.
The Conservative leader was dragged into the ‘Panama Papers’ scandal after leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca included details of a multi-million-pound offshore firm set up by his father.
“But I was keen in 2010 to sell everything — shares, all the rest of it — so I can be very transparent. I don’t own any part of any company or any investment trust or anything else like that,” Cameron said in the interview.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was in Cameron’s “own interests” to disclose details of his family’s arrangements with offshore tax havens.
Corbyn said that he wanted an investigation conducted by revenue and customs “about the amount of money of all people that have invested in these shell companies or put money into tax havens and to calculate what tax they should have paid over the years”.
Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru, accused Cameron of hypocrisy and asked him to report himself to the parliamentary standards committee.
The prime minister made the revelations about his involvement with the offshore fund set up by his father Ian after expose in the ‘Panama Papers’.
David Cameron has been “more transparent” about his finances than any previous prime minister, and did not avoid paying tax, Skills Minister Nick Boles has argued.
Boles said Cameron had paid the correct tax on all his investments and denied that his shares in an offshore firm — which he sold before he was elected in 2010 — was “hypocrisy”.
A Labour member of parliament has called for Cameron to resign over the revelations. Bassetlaw member of parliament and member of the Treasury Select Committee, John Mann, said it was a “matter of transparency”.
