Humbled Cameron admits he benefited from father’s Panama fund

David Cameron has stunned Westminster by finally admitting he did benefit from the offshore trust set up by his late father.

Cameron succumbed to days of pressure and confirmed he and his wife had owned shares in the Panama trust which they then sold for around £30,000, in 2010, before he became prime minister.

He told ITV News the controversy over the Panama Papers had been a “difficult few days”, as he admitted making a profit on the holding in Blairmore Investment Trust, but said it had been smaller than the tax paid.

“We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000.

“I paid income tax on the dividends. There was a profit on it but it was less than the capital gains tax allowance so I didn’t pay capital gains tax. But it was subject to all the UK taxes in all the normal way.

“I want to be as clear as I can about the past, about the present, about the future, because frankly I don’t have anything to hide.”

The admission comes after a turbulent few days for Cameron, who initially insisted he did not have to answer questions over this family’s financial affairs because it was a “private matter”.

Cameron said he had sold the holding before becoming prime minister because he wanted to be “transparent”.

He said he had been motivated to finally speak out because of “unfair” criticism of his father who, he said, had not sought to avoid tax.

Tonight’s interview is his fifth statement over the furore and prompted further questions from Labour.

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said it was an “an extraordinary admission”.

“David Cameron, who described the use of complex tax avoidance schemes as ‘morally wrong’, has been forced to admit that he held shares in a fund now linked to tax avoidance.

“Far from being the end of the matter, the questions keep coming. Did the Prime Minister know that this fund was linked to tax avoidance? If so, when, and if not, why not? Given that he claimed that ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’, why has it taken six years for this to come to light?

“The time has come for David Cameron to put the record straight rather than having details dragged from him in installments – that is the absolute minimum in terms of getting this in the meantime, I’m sure the Prime Minister will be considering voluntarily paying the money that, in his own words, should morally belong to the exchequer.

“People want a government that clamps down on tax avoidance and they want a Prime Minister who upholds the highest standards. At the moment we seem to have neither.”