John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor responding to the European Commission proposals force large companies to publish their tax arrangements, said:

“These proposals are a welcome step in the right direction, but more still needs to be done. We can only tackle these things by remaining in Europe. Labour has set out a robust programme for cleaning up our taxation system by launching our Tax Transparency Enforcement Programme.

“However, Labour believes that the turnover threshold is far too high and we will be pushing to get this figure reduced to a much lower level so that large corporations find it far more difficult to dodge paying their fair share of tax.

“But even these proposals would not be taking place right now if it was not for Labour MEPs who lobbied for this at an EU level while Tory MEPs under orders from George Osborne were doing their best to block them as recently as December last year.

“Unlike the Tory Government, Labour in the UK and in Europe is on the side of the many who pay their fair share of taxes, not the few who seek to evade them.”