Politics can be a dirty business. But nothing angers me more when a dead relative in prayed in aid. The smear on Ian Cameron is a disgrace. The idea is to suggest that Blairmore Holdings is somehow connected to tax avoidance and dictators who have plundered their people. The whiff is of .general sleazyness. This means that David Cameron ‘has questions to answer’. Today I can tell you the truth about Blairmore Holdings. Not from any contact in Number 10 nor any friend of Cameron, but an old friend who is one of the leading tax specialists in London. This is not his opinion, it is a set of facts. This is what he texted me. I put it in direct quotes to show that I am not putting a personal spin on it.
“Blairmore Holdings was a perfectly legitimate offshore investment fund. It’s underlying investments were very largely if not exclusively non UK. The fund was registered with the UK revenue as a ‘distributer fund’ which meant that it had to pay out to investors at least 85% of its income each year. The investors would be liable to UK income tax on those payments if UK resident. Equally, if they sold their investment they would be liable to capital gains tax”
So we know that the fund was legitimate. Question one. Was Ian Cameron a UK resident? Yes. Was David Cameron a UK resident? Yes. This really is a no brainer. Their can be nor could have been any possible tax be benefit under this fund for the Camerons. End of story.
But it won’t be. The press are now suggesting some sort of cover up. That this is embarrassing for the Prime Minister. “Put up or shut up” scream the headlines. It is utter bollocks. Even the hopeless Corbyn has latched onto this as some sort of life raft. But it was sinking even before he even stumbled aboard. To piously suggest that MPs should publish their tax returns is ridiculous, unfair and a terrible breach of privacy. To suggest that British Dependencies who run perfectly legal tax havens should be brought under direct rule is authoritarian and dangerous. And probably constitutionally impossible. Like Rhodesia they could claim UDI.
We must clamp down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance and no government is more committed to this not just in words but in deeds. Yes the Panama revelations are deeply damaging. But to dictators, despots and hypocrites. Not to the Camerons. To drag the good name (and it is a good name) of Ian Cameron through the muck of party politics, someone who cannot defend himself beyond the grave, is beneath contempt. Oh, and a Jewish mate of mine recently reminded me what the Yiddish word for disaster is. Chorbyn. Too bloody right.
