Gibraltar leader tells Miliband: ‘We are not a tax haven’

The Labour leader has faced a backlash after accusing many of Britain’s overseas territories of helping tax dodgers

Gibraltar’s chief minister has hit out at Ed Miliband – accusing him of fuelling Spanish attacks on the territory by wrongly suggesting it was operating as a “tax haven”.

Fabian Picardo said the unfair slur was being used by the Spanish press “as a rod with which to beat us” and called for a public clarification.

In a display of determination to tackle offshore tax dodgers, Mr Miliband delivered a dramatic ultimatum to the leaders of Britain’s overseas territories and crown dependencies.

If Labour won the general election, they would have six months to agree to publish a register of the true owners of shell companies or be referred for global blacklisting, he warned.

Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo took to the UK airwaves to demand a public clarification from the Labour leader and released his own stinging letter in reply.

Noting that he first knew about the blacklist threat via the media, he said it appeared like a “gimmicky and headline-grabbing initiative that may turn out to be wholly counter-productive”.

Companies in Gibraltar “do not benefit from any form of secrecy whatsoever”, he insisted, and had the same rating for transparency and information exchange as the UK and Germany.

“You will no doubt be impressed with this progress under a Socialist Liberal administration,” he quipped.

In a detailed explanation of why he believed Gibraltar was being unfairly targeted, he told Mr Miliband that his advisers “may not be explaining the whole picture to you and may expose you politically”.

The threatened “blacklisting” could not happen because that would require a breach of a global agreement to produce a register – which did not exist, he said.

He and other leaders had asked for a meeting with Mr Miliband to discuss the issue when they were in the UK for a summit last year, he claimed, but had still heard nothing back.

Warning of the possible unintended consequences of Mr Miliband’s words for the territory – over which Spain claims sovereignty in an increasingly aggressive manner – he said it had “already been picked up by the Spanish press and are being used as a rod with which to beat us”.

“Unfortunately they are revelling in the fact that this latest issue arises between two labour parties with strong historic links”.

Asked if he feared Mr Miliband might be less minded to protect Gibraltar from Spain’s claim of sovereignty if elected however, he told Sky News he had “no concerns in that respect”.