Everyone avoids tax, says Tory peer threatening to sue Miliband

Conservative peer Lord Fink yesterday threatened to sue Ed Miliband if the Labour leader were to repeat remarks he made under parliamentary privilege during yesterday’s PMQs. Fink, a major Tory donor, has been potentially implicated in the ongoing scandal of HSBC’s aggressive tax avoidance scheme. During the exchange with David Cameron, Miliband asked:

“Can you explain what steps you are going to take to find out about the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink?”

Miliband also described Cameron as a “dodgy Prime Minister surrounded by dodgy donors”. Lord Fink has taken umbrage at the remarks, describing them as “untrue and defamatory”, and said he would take legal action against Miliband if he were to repeat them outside the House of Commons.

However, in an interview with the Evening Standard, Lord Fink has accepted that he has avoided tax – claiming “everyone does it”. He told the paper:

“The expression tax avoidance is so wide that everyone does tax avoidance at some level.”

“I didn’t object to his use of the word ‘tax avoidance’. Because you are right: tax avoidance, everyone does it.”

It seems it is not claims of tax avoidance, but the word “dodgy” that brought Fink’s ire. However, Miliband did not use the phrase with specific mention of the peer. He also does not believe that he has “questions to answer”. He does accept that he cannot pursue libel action on the accusation that he has avoided tax:

“I don’t even want to sue Ed Miliband. In my life I have been libelled a few dozen times and I have never sued anybody, even for some comments that were quite outrageous.

“If he simply uses the words ‘Lord Fink did ordinary tax avoidance’ then no, I couldn’t sue him. But if he made the statement ‘dodgy’ about my bank account, that was potentially libellous. That was the issue I took exception to.

“I also took exception to him saying I had questions to answer. In fact, whenever anyone has put questions to me I have answered them.”

Given this acceptance, it perhaps unsurprising that Miliband is repeating his claim. During his speech on education today, Ed Miliband says this on the subject:

“Yesterday a Conservative donor challenged me to stand by what I said in the House of Commons.

“I do. 

“David Cameron should say what steps he is going to take to find out about the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink. 

“Because the use of trust arrangements to minimise tax otherwise payable, and sustained involvement with businesses linked to tax havens, amounts to tax avoidance in my book.