Labour MPs condemn “hypocrite” Cameron over Panama Papers revelations

Senior MPs have branded David Cameron a “hypocrite” while some backbenchers have called on him to resign after the prime minister revealed he had benefited from an offshore trust set up by his late father.

Tom Watson demanded more answers from Cameron over the messy series of denials which culminated in him admitting he had sold £31,500 of shares in a trust opened in Panama by his father.

Watson told the BBC that Cameron should not be blamed for decisions made by his father but added: “He can for hypocrisy. He said that sunlight is the best disinfectant and wasn’t entirely straight with the British people about what his own financial arrangements were.

“That wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t also been lecturing very prominent people about their own tax arrangements, some he called morally wrong for being invested in similar schemes.

“People don’t like that and they want a lot more answers from David Cameron before this scandal goes away.”

Speaking on Newsnight, Watson added:

“He’s made judgments on people as a prime minister for doing exactly what he used to do, and I don’t think it’s a good look for a prime minister to use the line ‘do as a I say not as I do.’ The avoidance of journalistic questions in the last three days just means there are going to be more questions about what his financial arrangements were both as leader of the opposition and as a MP.”

“It may be a resignation issue, but we don’t have the facts.”

“We certainly need to know what other investments David Cameron when he was leader of the opposition lecturing the country on tax reform.

John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor said Cameron no longer deserved a hearing on tax:

Owen Smith, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said the arrangement was a “tax avoidance vehicle” – a charge Cameron denies, saying he paid all taxes owed.

 “Why didn’t he register his interest in this offshore back in 2005 when he first became an MP?” Smith told the Today programme.

“He says he’s going to publish his tax return. I think he will need to go further and be clear about what his investments have been in the past.”

“On the one hand he’s been exulting everyone to not avoid tax and on the other hand he has benefit from a investment vehicle that is essentially a tax avoidance vehicle” 

“People will now have doubts about the trustworthiness of our prime minister given that he has been so revealed as having double standards.”

“Is it effectively one rule for the rich, and the rich who run the Tory party, and another rule for the rest of us? These are people who came to power arguing ‘we are all in it together’. Clearly that is not true and this episode reveals that in stark detail.”

Richard Burgon, Shadow Treasury Minister, has called on Cameron to quit before MPs on Monday and issue a statement on his tax affairs.

“I believe David Cameron needs to put the record straight and issue a statement to Parliament on Monday,” he said in the Yorkshire Post.

“Failure to issue a statement will give rise to further questions about whether the Prime Minister himself has breached the Ministerial Code.

“We can’t let this ongoing moral crisis at the heart of the ‘modern’ Conservative Party further undermine public trust in the office of Prime Minister or the principle that those who govern us should pay tax like the rest of us.

“David Cameron and George Osborne used to be fond of saying “We’re all in it together”. Sadly, it’s starting to sound less and less like an election slogan and more and more like a confession.”

John Mann called on Cameron to go, telling Sky: “He’s covered this up, particularly importantly during the 2010 election campaign and he’s got to resign – he has no choice.

“The key issue is he failed to tell Parliament, he’s failed to declare it, he’s failed to tell the British people, standing for Prime Minister…he’s failed on five occasions – it took the sixth occasion – to be fully honest and transparent with the press, he has to resign. This is not the kind of behaviour we can tolerate from a British Prime Minister.”

https://twitter.com/JohnMannMP/status/718154240699473924

Jeremy Corbyn, however, is yet to call on Cameron to resign:

Jess Phillips, an outspoken backbencher, has said Cameron should apologise and redouble his efforts to tackle tax avoidance in a piece for the Huffington Post:

“He should admit that he found it hard to tell the truth because he’s gone around saying he doesn’t like this sort of thing and he realises it doesn’t look good. He could then have reaffirmed his commitment to making sure this can never be allowed to happen again”.

Last night Cameron told ITV he had paid all taxes owed.

“We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000,” he said in an interview with Robert Peston.

“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.”