ON a day when the Premier of Iceland resigned over his links to the Panamanian firm hit by a leak of documents, the extended family of Prime Minister David Cameron is increasingly at the centre of a growing row over their links to secretive offshore funds.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn waded into the row yesterday saying the family’s tax affairs “may not be a private matter” which prompted the Prime Minister to deny receiving any benefit from the tax avoidance strategies of his Scottish father Ian Cameron who died in 2010.
“I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that,” said Cameron.
The leaked Panama Papers showed that the Prime Minister’s late father had been a client of offshore tax avoidance specialists Mossack Fonseca and used schemes in the Bahamas that meant his company, Blairmore Holdings, paid no tax in the UK.
In a further development, the National can reveal that the Prime Minister may face more queries over the tax affairs of another wing of his family. Mrs Samantha Cameron’s stepfather Viscount William Astor and his children have links to offshore funds through a company called Ginge Manor Estates Ltd, named after the family seat in Oxfordshire. It is through that company that the Astors own the Tarbert estate on Jura and it was Viscount Astor who wrote of a “Mugabe-style land grab” under the SNP’s land reform proposals.
Land reformer Andy Wightman first raised the issue of “foreign ownership” of Tarbert estate in 2013.
Wightman contacted Viscount Astor over the fact that ownership of Tarbert was not listed in the House of Lords Register of Interests.
Wightman said: “I emailed him directly and he replied that his children, Flora, William and James, owned the beneficial interest in the Bahamas company.”
At the time of the revelations Lord Astor, who could not be contacted last night, said: “My answer is very clear. We pay full taxes. No more to say.”
The late Ian Cameron was a regular user of tax avoidance strategies. Even before the full Panamanian link as revealed it was known after his death that he had used schemes in Jersey and Geneva.
He left £2.74m in his will, of which £300,000 was a direct bequest to his son David.
The Prime Minister has never admitted benefiting from, or even knowing about, his father’s tax arrangements though in 2012, David Cameron told the Daily Mail: “‘Some of these aggressive anti-avoidance schemes that may not be illegal are morally questionable.”
He described comedian Jimmy Carr’s use of an offshore scheme as “morally wrong” but in an interview acknowledged that people used the schemes “for family reasons”.
The unprecedented personal attack from Jeremy Corbyn made headlines around the world. The Labour leader called for a independent inquiry into the tax affairs of all companies using offshore firms.
Corbyn said: “It’s a private matter in so far as it’s a privately held interest, but it’s not a private matter if tax has not been paid.
“So an investigation must take place, independent investigation, unprejudiced, to decide whether or not tax is owed.”
He added that the inquiry by HM Revenue and Customs should be “about the amount of money of all people that have invested in these shell companies or put money into tax havens”.
Asked whether the PM should resign if he is found to have benefited from the use of offshore firms, he replied: “Let’s take one thing at a time. We need openness, we need an examination, we need a decision after that.”
The Prime Minister later said: “In terms of my own financial affairs, I own no shares.
“I have a salary as Prime Minister and I have some savings, which I get some interest from and I have a house, which we used to live in, which we now let out, while we’re living in Downing Street – and that’s all I have.”
The National asked Downing Street the following questions: When did Mr Cameron become aware of his father’s use of offshore funds? The Prime Minister may not have had shares in any offshore company, but does he not consider that he benefitted from his father’s tax avoidance as he gained £300,000 in his father’s will?
Was the Prime Minister aware of Viscount Astor and his family using the Bahamas-based Ginge Manor Estate company? Can he say why an estate on Jura which he has visited should be owned by a company based in the Bahamas?
A No 10 spokesperson said: “To be clear, the Prime Minister, his wife and their children do not benefit from any offshore funds.
“The Prime Minister owns no shares. As has been previously reported, Mrs Cameron owns a small number of shares connected to her father’s land, which she declares on her tax return.”
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The National View: Cameron still must give answers on family's tax affairs
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