Osborne under pressure to publish tax return

George Osborne is under increasing pressure to publish details of his own tax affairs after David Cameron’s unprecedented disclosure in the light of the Panama Papers scandal.

The chancellor is facing calls from Labour to reveal details because of his status as a likely leadership candidate, as well as because of his role overseeing Britain’s labyrinthine tax system.

John McDonnell, Osborne’s Labour shadow, published his tax return at the height of the row over Google’s paltry payment of back taxes, while Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to publish his own tax return imminently.

“There has to be trust in people in public office. You have to know what they are earning, where it comes from and what influences come as a result of that,” Corbyn told the BBC yesterday.

It comes as Cameron outlines plans to bring in a criminal offence for employees which help, or fail to prevent, their employees from evading tax, as the Tories try to put behind them a week of turmoil.

Cameron is also expected to mount a defence of his late father, Ian, who set up an offshore investment fund in the Bahamas, and his mother, who has seen her family’s finances pored over in the press during the last week.

Cameron’s mother faced increased scrutiny over the weekend after the prime minister revealed she had given him £200,000, apparently to even out the distribution of assets after Cameron’s brother received the family home in the will of Ian Cameron.

Now public attention on Osborne is growing. The Chancellor seems increasingly likely to publish information on his own tax affairs and a Treasury source told The Independent: “We have been clear that the Chancellor has never had any offshore shareholdings or other interests. His income and interests are straightforward and declared publicly: his salary, rental income from a property in London and a shareholding in his father’s firm, Osborne and Little. He is always happy to consider ways to ‎offer even more transparency”.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, has also published her own tax return, following the same move by Kezia Dugdale, leader of Scottish Labour, over the weekend.

Richard Burgon, shadow Treasury minister, said Cameron’s announcement on measures to combat tax evasion was a repeat of reforms announced last year.

“After a week in which the Prime Minister tried to spin his way out of answering a simple question, he has started a new week just how he ended the last one.

“If the Conservatives really think they can get away with the re-announcement of a policy from 2015 then they really have learnt nothing at all.

“What we need is for David Cameron to set the record straight and answer the questions he has been avoiding and which he still has hanging over his head. At the same time we need policy not spin from the Government on how to tackle tax avoidance.

“Labour published our Tax Enforcement Programme yesterday that sets out some serious proposals to deal this issue. It’s time David Cameron got to grips with this scandal that is engulfing his Party.”