Live
Audio Only
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron had a tough time during questioning in Parliament Wednesday, when asked about the appointment of the much manligned former HSBC chairman as the minister for economy, one year after evidence leaked to the U.K. government that the Swiss bank had set up a sophisticated system of tax avoidance.
The four times Cameron was questioned about the topic in the House of Commons, each time he avoided answering directly. Members of Parliament asked whether he had a conversation about tax avoidance with former HSBC head Stephen Green before appointing him or not, but never received an answer.
One hour before the parliamentary session, the Guardian and other news outlets released reports on the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC and its massive system of tax avoidance, reports quoted by leader of the opposition Labour Party Ed Miliband.
“Are we seriously expected to believe that when he made Stephen Green a minister four months later he had no idea about these allegations? There’s something rotten at the heart of the Conservative Party – and it’s him,” said Miliband, pointing at Cameron.
However, the prime minister said that the process of appointing Green followed all the necessary procedures, avoiding commenting on the tax avoidance scandal.
“I consulted the cabinet secretary, I consulted the [cabinet office] director for propriety and ethics and, of course, the House of Lords appointments commission now looks at someone’s individual tax affairs before giving them a peerage,” said Cameron.
The opposition concerns about Green's appointment result from the fact that the U.K. government had been warned as early as 2010 about the tax avoidance practices of HSBC, including the names of the U.K. citizens and clients of HSBC with secret bank accounts in Switzerland.
During his intervention, Miliband also criticized the presence of the former treasurer of the Conservative Party, Lord Fink, who appeared on the list of HSBC tax evaders.
Newsletter
