Tax Havens

Lord Tunnicliffe Excerpts

Thursday 6th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

My understanding is that in order to be a Member of your Lordships’ House you have to be registered as a UK taxpayer. My own view is that everybody should pay the tax which is due to them, and I agree with what the former Prime Minister said about the morality of tax avoidance.

[Lord Tunnicliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord has given his usual charming and reasonable answers, if somewhat unconvincingly in some cases. However, I wonder whether the truth of the matter is displayed by his boss, Philip Hammond, who in an interview with a German newspaper in January said:

“I personally hope we will be able to remain in the mainstream of European economic and social thinking. But … We could be forced to change our economic model, and we will have to change our model to regain competitiveness. And you can be sure we will do whatever we have to do”.


Is his boss threatening to turn Britain into a Cayman Islands-like tax haven?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

My Lords, we want to remain competitive in a world economy and to attract inward investment. Although we have reduced corporation tax since 2010, onshore corporation tax receipts have gone up by 50% since that date, despite the reduction in the rate. Reducing corporation tax encourages business investment and growth, and one estimate has shown that the cuts announced since 2010 amount to an estimated increase in GDP of 1.3%.