Pre-election debate sees parties united in tackling tax avoidance
Enterprise minister Nick Boles says big corporations are ‘taking the mickey’ and Labour’s Chuka Umunna said the issue makes his constituents ‘very angry indeed’
A senior Conservative MP has advised businesses and accountants to check whether their tax policies are ethical by asking an NHS nurse.
The enterprise minister Nick Boles made his intervention during a pre-election debate about business policies with Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, and Labour’s Chuka Umunna.
Boles said there was more to do to tackle corporate tax avoidance: “We’ve got further to go with big global corporations who are taking the mickey.”
Offering advice to the audience of business people assembled by accountants Grant Thornton, Boles said: “If you’ve got an idea of something you’re going to do, go to a nurse in your local hospital and explain it to her for three minutes. If … she thinks it’s pretty reasonable … it’s OK. If she gets pretty angry with you it probably isn’t,” said Boles.
Umunna said if the audience thought the language used by politicians was “quite extreme and hyperbolic … you want to hear what we hear from our constituents on the doorstep. This issue makes them very angry indeed. It is bad not just for society but it is bad for business … and reduces trust.”
Cable said that tax avoidance is stifling entrepreneurship and must be tackled. “The next government is going to become increasingly aggressive about tax avoidance,” said Cable. He said the policies used by HSBC’s Swiss banking arm were unacceptable and the government would find ways of stopping that.
He was referring to revelations in February stemming from a cache of leaked documents showing that HSBC’s Swiss arm turned a blind eye to illegal activities of arms dealers and helped wealthy people evade taxes.
At the debate, Umunna attempted to calm concerns from business leaders about the impact of the election on the markets and the economy by saying he believed in “continuity wherever possible, change where absolutely necessary”.
He was speaking after a survey of finance directors by Deloitte had found concerns that the election risked upsetting the current “benign policy environment”.
Boles was standing in for Matt Hancock, who was involved in the launch of the Conservative party manifesto. Natalie Bennett from the Green party did not attend, while Ukip’s representative provided a video from Brussels.
The prospect of an in-out referendum on EU membership as promised by the Conservatives prompted Umunna to warn the impact on the markets would be 10 times greater than at the time of the Scottish referendum. But he said: “The EU might be popular among businesses but it is not the most popular institution in the country.”
They also discussed whether the next government would be formed through a coalition or by a majority government. Cable said his party’s role was to act for moderation while Umunna said Labour’s aim was to ask for a majority.
Boles said the state of the polls in Scotland, suggesting Labour would lose seats, would point to a Conservative majority government. But he said this could lead to a hung parliament and the Conservatives would deal with the result.
“They [the electorate] may say they don’t want a coalition and they may say they don’t want a hung parliament but their votes may produce a hung parliament,” said Boles.
