Shabana Mahmood MP, Labour’s shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, responding to reports that Transport Minister Stephen Hammond cut his tax bill by using an offshore company to buy his second home, said:

“George Osborne said people buying homes through a company to avoid tax was unacceptable and he would come down on it ‘like a ton of bricks’.

"Now that a Government Minister has been accused of avoiding tax in this way, will George Osborne and David Cameron come down on him like a ton of bricks?”