Paradise Papers Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Paradise Papers

Caroline Lucas Excerpts
Monday 6th November 2017

(7 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Mel Stride Portrait Mel Stride
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. One measure that the Opposition have said a future Labour Government would take is to stick the corporation tax rate up to 26%, which would do nothing to create jobs, nothing to create wealth, nothing to improve our economy and, most importantly, nothing to raise the vital taxes that we need to support our vital public services.

Caroline Lucas Portrait Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
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Given what the Paradise papers reveal about the industrial scale of tax dodging, together with the shaming fact that some of the UK’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies are the largest tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions in the world, will the Government drop their morally indefensible blocking of the development of a credible and meaningful EU blacklist of tax havens?

Mel Stride Portrait Mel Stride
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The hon. Lady is simply wrong. The discussions on the blacklist at the European Union are ongoing and the United Kingdom Government have done nothing to attempt to block them. We are firmly and deeply engaged in them and expect them to conclude by the end of this year.