Panama Papers: Watch David Cameron face MPs for first time after offshore admission
David Cameron will face MPs for the first time after admitting he held a stake in his father offshore fund when he addresses the House of Commons on 11 April. The prime minister is expected to announce a new law which would make companies criminally liable if their employees facilitate tax evasion.
The speech will come just days after Cameron disclosed that he sold shares worth £31,500 ($44,720) in Blairmore Holdings in January 2010, months before his election. The prime minister's late father, Ian, incorporated the company in 1982 in Panama and ran the fund out of the Bahamas.
The massive Panama Papers leak showed that the former stockbroker was a client of Mossack Fonseca. Downing Street initially tried to play down Cameron's connection to Blairmore, describing his families' finances as a 'private matter', until the prime minister gave an interview to ITV News.
"We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000," Cameron revealed.
"I paid income tax on the dividends. 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 way. 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."
The admission triggered a protest outside Downing Street on 9 April, while Cameron conceded to Tory activists that he was to blame for the handling of the transparency row. Meanwhile, the prime minister took the unprecedented move of publishing his personal tax return.
The documents, which cover 2009 to 2015, showed that Cameron received two £100,000 payments from his mother, Mary, a year after his father passed away in 2010 and he inherited £300,000.
You can watch Cameron's speech to MPs from 3.30pm BST on Sky News, BBC Parliament and Parliament TV. Also make sure to follow IBTimesUK Politics for commentary and reaction on the prime minister's address. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to speak after Cameron.
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