The Labour leader Ed Miliband has said he stands by comments made in the Commons, accusing a Tory peer of tax avoidance activities.
And he charged the Government with "turning a blind eye to tax avoidance", after the former Conservative treasurer acknowledged he did take "vanilla, bland" measures to reduce his liabilities.
Mr Miliband was responding to a challenge from Lord Fink to repeat a claim he made during a bitter exchange in the House of Commons over alleged tax avoidance linked to HSBC's Swiss subsidiary.
However, he stopped short of repeating his Commons claim, which was protected by parliamentary privilege, that David Cameron was "a dodgy Prime Minister surrounded by dodgy donors".
Lord Fink had branded this accusation as "untrue and defamatory" , and had threatened legal action if he made it in public.
But in an interview with the Evening Standard and said he did not want to sue Mr Miliband, and acknowledged he had engaged in tax avoidance, although he said this was at "the mildest end of the spectrum".
"What I did ... was at the vanilla, bland, end of the spectrum," he insisted.
And he said he had rejected expert advice that he could save a fortune by adopting "aggressive" avoidance measures.
Lord Fink told the newspaper: "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.
"f 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."
He went on: "The expression tax avoidance is so wide that everyone does tax avoidance at some level."
Speaking at the launch of Labour's education policy for the May general election at his former school in north London, Mr Miliband said: "Yesterday a Conservative donor challenged me to stand by what I said in the House of Commons. I do.
"And believe it or not, now today he confirmed it as well. He has just said, and I quote 'I didn't object to his use of the word tax avoidance, because tax avoidance - everyone does it'.
"David Cameron must explain why he appointed a treasurer of the Conservative Party who boasts about engaging in tax avoidance and thinks it is something that everyone does.
"This the big choice facing our country - a choice between an old economy defended by this Government in which a blind eye is turned to tax avoidance, and a new economy built by investing in the talents and education of all our young people."
Mr Miliband told Sky News: "The difference between today and yesterday is Lord Fink is saying what I said about Lord Fink.
"When somebody says I am going to sue the Labour leader because he says I am engaged in tax avoidance and the next day says I am not going to sue him because I have engaged in tax avoidance, I'd say that's a pretty open and shut case."
But responding to Mr Miliband's comments, Lord Fink said: "Yesterday I challenged Ed Miliband to repeat the accusations he made in the Commons - that I used an HSBC bank account to avoid tax and that I was a 'dodgy donor'. He did not.
"This is a major climbdown by a man who is willing to smear without getting his facts straight."
Meanwhile, the man who lifted the lid on the HSBC tax scandal has said he first raised concerns about suspect practices at the bank in 2008 - two years earlier than previously thought.
In an interview with Sky News, Herve Falciani said he emailed and called Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs seven years ago.
More follows...
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Miliband Stands By Fink Tax Avoidance Claims
Dengan url
http://terjunbebasopan.blogspot.com/2015/02/miliband-stands-by-fink-tax-avoidance.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Miliband Stands By Fink Tax Avoidance Claims
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Miliband Stands By Fink Tax Avoidance Claims
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar