Cameron under pressure over Google deal

Pressure is mounting on British Prime Minister David Cameron over a back tax deal agreed by Internet group Google.

During a hot debate in the parliament, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn challenged Cameron to defend the deal, which he said represented a tax rate of just 3 percent on 6 billion pounds ($8.5 billion) of profits that Google, now part of holding company Alphabet Inc, has earned in Britain since 2005.

"Why is there one rule for big multinational companies and another for ordinary small businesses and self-employed workers?", he asked the prime minister in his weekly parliamentary question session.

Cameron did not comment on the 130 million pound settlement but said he had been genuinely angry over Google's failure to pay much tax, adding that this largely occurred when Labour was in power from 1997 to 2010. "We've done more on tax evasion and tax avoidance than Labour ever did," he said.

Finance minister George Osborne has said the settlement was "a victory for the action we've taken" against corporate profit-shifting.

Last week, Google announced an agreement to pay UK tax authorities about $185 million for taxes owed for the last decade.

Google’s deal will cover a decade of underpayment of UK taxes by the company, which has been criticized in the past for its tax avoidance policies.

The company had previously defended its record, telling a US Senate inquiry last year that it was “simply the way the global tax system is working” and that the issue was for politicians to fix.

Earlier, a group of European MPs urged Osborne to explain the "very bad deal" that UK tax authorities have struck with Google.

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