Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Secretary, responding to the Government’s written statement on the Panama Taskforce, said:

“The fact that the Government have sneaked this out in a written statement just before recess probably says all you need to know about how seriously they are really taking the issue of tackling tax avoidance.

“And you can see why they are trying to hide this statement, when you consider that back in April they claimed they were looking into 700 leads but today they are saying they’re only investigating 22 individuals – that is a 3 per cent rate of following down these leads.

“The Tories are clearly trying to hide that they have been dragging their feet on this issue for six years now, and on the same day they have been caught trying to stop tax havens from being blacklisted by the EU, no one will be convinced by their lacklustre attempts at clamping down on those that  use them.”