News / Interviews

Major British parties come to blows over govt. tax scandal

Monday, 09 February 2015 7:04 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 09 February 2015 7:09 PM ]

HSBC cash machines (file photo)

Britain’s ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour take a swipe at each other over the tax department’s handling of the British bank HSBC’s tax evasions.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government had "some serious questions to answer" and accused the Revenue and Customs (tax department) of failing to act on the details it was given in 2010 about the claims.

But the government has hit back at Labour, accusing it of failing to act on tax evasion when it was in power.

Labour was granted an urgent question in the House of Commons about the HSBC claims, which means a government minister will have to make a statement and answer questions from MPs, the state-run BBC reported Monday.

The political row comes after HSBC reportedly helped wealthy clients cheat the UK out of millions of pounds in tax.

HSBC admitted that some individuals took advantage of bank secrecy to hold undeclared accounts, but it said it has now "fundamentally changed".

Now economic commentator Shabbir Razvi says that “the so-called clash between Labour and Tories is a phony clash, because at the end of the day, the Tory party has been in power for the last 5 years. These tax avoidance and tax evasion schemes were operating when Labor party was in power.”

“Obviously, the Conservative party could have taken action in the last 5 years, but the irony of the situation is that the Conservative party has appointed the former chief of HSBC Steven Green as a trade minister in their government. So as I said it’s a phony war, both of the parties are really in power because they are supported by the rich and the wealthy in UK,” Razvi told Press TV’s UK Desk in a Monday interview.

SP/GHN

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk