Advertisement

Pressure Mounts On PM Over Offshore Shares

David Cameron's admission that he owned, sold and made a profit on shares held in a controversial fund before he became PM has prompted a Labour MP to call for him to resign.

Labour MP and Treasury Select Committee member John Mann - who has been a high-profile campaigner for more tax transparency - suggested Mr Cameron "has no choice but to resign" and called him a "hypocrite".

And Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson said the PM may need to quit and has more questions to answer.

:: PM's Five Statements On Offshore Shares Row

He told Sky News: "He has to be fully transparent. It's no good just saying he's going to publish his tax returns because that won't show what his investment portfolio was and we need to know that now."

Mr Watson added: "He's condemned other people in public life for being morally wrong whilst knowing he's had investments in these kind of schemes himself and that shows double standards and people don't like that."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has also waded into the row. She told Sky News: "I think the Prime Minister has given the impression over the last few days that he has got something to hide.

"The information that he revealed yesterday appears to have been dragged out of him.

"I think it's time for complete and utter transparency from the Prime Minister."

She was speaking after Mr Cameron admitted for the first time he held shares in the fund set up by his late father.

:: Cameron's History Of Tough-Talking On Tax

The Prime Minister has faced questions this week over his family's tax affairs after details of Ian Cameron's investment fund were reported as part of the Panama Papers leak.

Number 10 has said he will publish his own tax returns "in the coming weeks".

Mr Cameron has previously suggested he was prepared to publish his tax returns - including in an interview with Sky News in 2012 - but is yet to do so.

Downing Street initially said his family's tax affairs were a private matter before saying the PM had no offshore funds and trusts, and then making clear the family would not benefit in future.

In response to a question from Sky's Faisal Islam at an event on Wednesday, the PM said : "I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that."

Now in his fifth statement on the matter, Mr Cameron said he and his wife sold shares worth more than £30,000 in Blairmore Holdings six years ago.

:: PM Evaded Question But Has Not Avoided Damage

The couple bought their holding in April 1997 for £12,497 and sold it in January 2010 for £31,500, according to Downing Street.

The PM said the pair's profit was "subject to all the UK taxes in the normal ways" and it was just below the threshold at which capital gains tax would have applied.

The annual personal allowance for an individual in 2009-10 was £10,100 - meaning jointly the profit was just outside the threshold.

He also said his father left him £300,000, adding: "I obviously can't point to every source of every bit of the money."

According to The Guardian, papers leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca are said to suggest Ian Cameron ran a fund that avoided having to pay tax in Britain by hiring Bahamas residents to sign its paperwork.

But the PM insisted it was a "fundamental misconception" that the fund was set up to avoid tax, saying his father was being "unfairly written about".

He also said he did not have "anything to hide" about his financial affairs.

Mr Cameron told ITV News: "I paid income tax on the dividends, but 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 ways.

"So 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."

Earlier this week the prime minister of Iceland, who was named in the Panama Papers leak, resigned after thousands called for him to quit.