Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including David Cameron and Ed Miliband at PMQs, Jeremy Hunt’s statement on NHS whistleblowers, and HMRC officials being questioned by MPs about the HSBC revelations 12.49pm GMT At the post-PMQs huddle journalists have been trying to get an answer from the prime minister’s spokesperson about whether David Cameron discussed tax evasion at HSBC with Lord Green. According to Paul Waugh, they haven’t been making much progress.Lobby: Did Cam discuss HSBC tax with Green? No10:"He answered that". Lobby: No he didn't. No10: "He was asked the Q + he gave his answer" 12.47pm GMT Here are the highlights from the exchanges between David Cameron and Ed Miliband over HSBC. Miliband began by raising a story published by the Guardian less than an hour before PMQs started. I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome’s excellent PMQs blog. 12.36pm GMT Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative, says Sir Brian Leveson in a recent report recommended curtailing jury trial.Cameron says jury trial is very important. He does not want to see it reduced. 12.35pm GMT Labour’s Graham Allen says levels of voter disengagement are unacceptable. Will Cameron commit himself to a convention that would give everyone a copy of the nation’s rulebook, such as a written constitution, so that everyone feels part of our democracy.Cameron says he respects Allen, but he doubts that another constitutional convention is the answer. It is more important to address problems, like English votes for English laws. It is disappointing that Labour don’t agree. 12.33pm GMT Labour’s Phil Wilson asks Cameron to confirm he never had a conversation with Lord Green about tax evasion.Cameron says Green’s appointment was welcomed by Labour. The government has cracked down on this more than Labour. 12.31pm GMT Labour’s Chi Onwurah says there are adverts in Newcastle asking people to report benefit cheats. Why does Cameron not feel as strongly about tax evasion?Cameron says he does feel strongly about this. For example, under Labour people could cut their tax by being paid through a company, or being paid through a trust. Both practices have been banned by the government. 12.29pm GMT Sir Peter Tapsell, the Conservative MP and father of the House, says it is often wise to acknowledge the concept of spheres of influence. Ukraine is of no strategic importance to the UK. But Greece is. And there is a danger of Greece falling into the Russian sphere of influence without a shot being fired.Cameron says making sure that aggression is not rewarded in relation to Ukraine is important. 12.27pm GMT Cameron says the government is determined to listen to whistleblowers in the NHS, unlike Labour. 12.27pm GMT Karen Lumley, a Conservative, says Labour campaign bus for women is a “patronising stunt”.Cameron says the wheels are falling off the bus of Labour’s women’s campaign. Surprise, surprise, it is not going to be driven by a frontbencher, he says; it is going to be driven by Unite. 12.25pm GMT Labour’s Sharon Hodgson asks if Cameron had conversations with Lord Green about tax avoidance at HSBC. And, if not, why not?Cameron says when he appointed Green efvery proper process was followed. He consulted the cabinet secretary, and the official in charge of ethics. The House of Lords appointments committee also approved the appointment. Labour welcomed the appointment, and three years later were still holding meeting with him. 12.23pm GMT Labour’s Michael Connarty says the last Labour government prosecuted more companies for tax evasion than this one has done.Cameron says he has put tax evasion at the top of the G20 agenda. There are no information sharing systems with countries, including Switzerland. These problems took place while Labour was in power. Labour only started talking about this after the government acted, he says. 12.21pm GMT Labour’s John Mann says increasing security around synagogues cannot wait until May.Cameron praises Mann for the work he has done on this. He has ensured the police are in contact with the relevant organisations. He is happy to meet Mann to discuss this. 12.19pm GMT Cameron says the government is committed to seven-day opening for GPs in England. He urges the NHS in Wales, and the Labour government in Wales, to extend access to GPs in Wales. 12.19pm GMT Cameron says prosecutions for tax evasion have gone up five-fold since 2010.But, in this country, the prosecuting authorities are independent of government. That is different in other countries. There is a word for that: corruption. But that is what Labour seems to be proposing, he says. 12.18pm GMT Peter Lilley, a Conservative, says the government has presided over the creation of 2m private sector jobs. Cameron says Lilley is right. He says Miliband said the goverment’s policies would cost 1m jobs. He was 1m% wrong. 12.16pm GMT Labour’s Peter Hain asks about a constituent who is losing his free motorbility scooter.Cameron says he will look into this. 12.15pm GMT Cameron says he is pleased to announce plans that will see the roll out of wifi on trains from 2017. The government will contribute £50m to this. 12.14pm GMT Asked why the government is not giving public sector workers in the pay rise, Cameron says everyone in the NHS will get at least 1%, and that, because of progression pay, some workers will get 2, 3 or 4%. 12.12pm GMT Snap PMQs Verdict: Miliband failed to get through Cameron defences. Not so much a loss as a missed opportunity ... 12.10pm GMT Miliband says Cameron was turning a blind eye. This is what we saw with Andy Coulson.Cameron says this is desperate stuff. Miliband cannot go in front of business, because he has offended them. He cannot go to Scotland, because he is toxic. He has even offended nuns. 12.09pm GMT Miliband says Cameron is a dodgy leaders surrounded by dodgy donors. Does Cameron really think people will believe that Lord Green knew nothing about the problems with HSBC when he was made a minister.Cameron says Labour welcomed Green’s appointment as a minister. And Green went on a trade mission with a Labour figure. Last week Miliband asked six times about the tax treatment of hedge funds. The policy was introduced in the autumn of 1997 by Labour, and it was extended in 2007, by Labour. At the time the City minister was “Ed Somebody”. 12.05pm GMT Ed Miliband raises the latest Guardian story about Tory donors. How can Cameron explaing the revolviung door between the Conservatives and tax avoidance?Cameron says he has seen the list. It includes Lord Paul, who funded Gordon Brown’s election campaign. 12.03pm GMT Tim Yeo, a Conservative, asks David Cameron if he remembers the 1983 election, when the Tories won a landslide. Unemployment then was 3m, and inflation was 8%. They are better now. Margaret Thatcher was helped by a leftwing opposition leader.David Cameron says he could not vote in 1983. This government is cutting unemployment, and every Labour government puts it up, he says. The government has created 1,000 jobs for every day it has been in office. Ed Miliband says jobs would be lost. He should apologise, 12.00pm GMT Earlier this week Labour wrote to George Osborne, the chancellor, with some questions about the HSBC affair. Here are the three key questions Labour posed. 11.54am GMT Here’s a good spot from my colleague Patrick Wintour.Many examples of people contemporaneously spotting link between Stephen Green & his Swiss subsidiary. This one good. http://t.co/tJq3JdJPRV 11.53am GMT PMQs is starting in a few minutes.Pretty clear that PMQs is going to be dominated by accusations of tax dodging. Suspect the session won’t do much for politics' reputation 11.42am GMT You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today’s paper, are here.As for the rest of the papers, here’s the PoliticsHome list of top 10 must-reads, and here’s the ConservativeHome round-up of today’s politics stories.David Cameron has warned cabinet ministers to clear a mounting backlog of government work amid fears that Whitehall is starting to grind to a halt before the general election. The prime minister, already irritated by claims of a “zombie parliament”, made clear his frustration at the slowing pace of government in cabinet, according to senior figures. “He was very clear that we have to keep going at full pace for the finishing line,” said one senior minister. Donations to Labour from individuals have slumped to less than half of their level during the last parliament, highlighting the party’s difficulty in appealing to wealthy business figures.The opposition party received just £8.7m from private donors in the current legislative session, compared to £20.7m in the same period of the last parliament, according to an analysis by the Financial Times of Electoral Commission figures. 11.31am GMT New cameras are going to be installed in the House of Commons chamber to provide a more flattering view of MPs, the Press Association reports.Voters are due to see a better side of their MPs after the general election - with new camera angles being introduced in the House of Commons. The ruling Commons Commission has approved the use of more flattering eye-level shots following an “off-air” trial last month. 11.26am GMT The Guardian has just revealed that the Conservatives raised more than £5m from HSBC customers with Swiss bank accounts. Labour has also benefited from cash and gifts in kind worth over £500,000, as well as a loan for £2m.Here’s our story. And here’s how it starts.Conservative donors, peers and a high profile MP are listed among the wealthy who legally held accounts in Switzerland with HSBC’s private bank, for a wide variety of reasons.Their ranks include Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park, plus his brother the financier Ben Goldsmith, and a Swiss resident, German-born automotive heir Georg von Opel, who has donated six-figure sums in the past two years. 11.20am GMT Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, has urged David Cameron to hold the planned EU referendum next year, not in 2017. Speaking on LBC, he said he agreed with the British Chambers of Commerce director general, John Longworth, about this.Let’s get it done and knock it on the head and do it for the good of Europe. This problem is not going away. The whole Eurozone is mired in low growth, low productivity, they have a very anti-competitive environment there, a terrible system of regulation coming from Brussels. Boris Johnson is just the latest senior Conservative to try and use the issue of a European referendum to jockey for position within the Party.The very fact that the Conservatives seem more interested in talking about the date, than about change in Europe shows that they are more interested in exit than in reform. 11.12am GMT Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, has been defending the party’s decision to use a pink van for its women’s campaign battlebus. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:We just wanted an eye-catching colour, so we didn’t want our normal Labour red and this is the colour that it is. But I think the reason it has to be eye-catching is that there’s a big hole in our democratic politics at the moment. And, you know, in 2010 at the last general election, 9.1m women didn’t vote and that’s because they just don’t think that politicians have got any interest in their lives or understand their lives or have got anything to offer to them ...When we go to Stevenage to launch it today, I think the one thing that women will be discussing with us will not be, actually, probably the colour of the bus; they’ll probably be discussing, you know, whether they get the same pay as men in their workplace, the same opportunities, whether they’re tearing their hair out looking for childcare, whether if they’re looking [after] older relatives they can combine that with work. 10.46am GMT For the record, here are today’s YouGov GB polling figures.Labour: 35% 10.38am GMT The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope has a good tale. He says that Edward Troup, HMRC’s tax assurance commissioner, has been pulled from this afternoon’s public accounts committee hearing.Here’s an extract from his story.Edward Troup, HMRC’s second permanent secretary, was due to appear alongside Lin Homer, HMRC’s chief executive, and Jim Harra, the director general of business tax, in front of the influential Public Accounts Committee this afternoon. The session is notionally about the work of HMRC. But the trio were due to be grilled by the MPs about why more action was not taken against a list of 6,000 former clients of HMRC’s Swiss arm whose details were leaked to HMRC in 2010. 10.19am GMT And here’s some reaction to Nicola Sturgeon’s comments.From Margaret Curran, the Labour MP and shadow Scottish secretaryScotland can’t afford another five years of David Cameron, but Nicola Sturgeon wants to help the Tories get back into power. Every vote for the SNP in May is another boost for David Cameron, and makes it more likely that he will be prime minister for another five years. Labour has a fair plan to balance the books but the SNP have stood against Labour’s progressive policies, such as the 50p tax for top earners.All the bombast in the world will not change the reality that the UK government’s economic strategy is working. Whether Nicola Sturgeon likes it or not, this government has cut borrowing by £52n from the level we inherited. That’s why the markets have regained confidence, the cost of borrowing and mortgages is at a record low, and we are vying with the United States for the strongest economic growth in the G7. We have achieved this despite the continued economic trouble affecting our immediate partners, especially our largest trading partner - the eurozone.If the first minister has something serious to say on this subject matter, now is the time to say it. By how much would she raise taxes, and by how much would she cut spending in the next parliament? Or does she want to go back to the days of high borrowing, high mortgage costs, and an ever-bigger debt problem for the next generation to pay off? 10.12am GMT Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is delivering an anti-austerity speech in London this afternoon. She previewed her argument on the Today programme. Here are the key points.If over the life of the next parliament we were to allow modest, responsible increases in public spending, say 0.5% in real terms, then debt and deficit would still be falling as a percentage of GDP over these years but we’re free up something in the region of £180bn over the UK to invest in infrastructure, innovation, growing the economy and public services.In terms of what I’m setting out you’d have debt and deficit reducing so I’m not denying it’s important to get the deficit under control and start reducing debt. What I’m arguing is that to look at deficit in isolation is far too narrow because although that’s important, it’s also important to have stronger, sustainable, more solidly base economic growth.I’m going to make the argument that austerity has failed. It’s failed on the terms the coalition government have set for it. George Osborne said in 2010 that next year he’d have a £6bn surplus on his current spending – in actual fact he’s going to have a £49bn deficit. Austerity has failed and it’s time for a different approach. I think it is important that we reduce the deficit and the debt and what I will set out is a different way of doing that.I would certain hope, if there was a Labour government dependent on SNP support, which actually is the most popular preferred outcome of people in Scotland, then we could persuade and influence a Labour government to take a more moderate approach to deficit reduction.I am not going to support governments that plough ahead with austerity, that damage the poorest in society. A Labour government that looked to the SNP for support would have to moderate its position in that regard. That would be popular not just with SNP supporters but I’m sure with a lot of traditional Labour supporters in Scotland and across the rest of the UK as well.I am sure there are many voices within the Labour party who wish the Labour party was arguing this more progressive, moderate, balanced, fair approach to reducing the deficit. 9.43am GMT And here’s the government’s amendment to the Labour motion on tax avoidance. (See 9.13am.)Line 1, leave out from ‘House’ to end and add ‘notes that while the release of information pertaining to malpractice between 2005 to 2007 by individual HSBC accountholders was public knowledge, at no point were Ministers made aware of individual cases due to taxpayer confidentiality or made aware of leaked information suggesting wrongdoing by HSBC itself; notes that this Government has specifically taken action to get back money lost in Swiss bank accounts; welcomes the over £85 billion secured in compliance yield as a result of that action, including £850 million from high net worth individuals; notes the previous administration’s record, where private equity managers could pay a lower tax rate than their cleaners, very wealthy homebuyers could avoid stamp duty and companies could shift their profits to tax havens; further recognises that this Government has closed tax loopholes left open by the previous administration in every year of this Parliament, introduced the UK’s first General Anti-Abuse Rule, removed the cash- flow advantage of holding onto the money whilst disputing tax due with HMRC, and allowed HMRC to monitor, fine and publicly name promoters of tax avoidance schemes; notes this Government’s leading international role in tackling base erosion and profit shifting; welcomes the commitment to implement the G20-OECD agreed model for country-by-country reporting and rules for neutralising hybrid mismatch arrangements; notes the role of the diverted profits tax in countering aggressive tax planning by large multinationals; supports the Government’s adoption of the early adopters initiative; and recognises that as a result the UK is collecting more tax than ever before.’. 9.43am GMT #UKGENERALELECTION2015 85 DAYS TO GOAnd here’s today election fact from the Press Association.Peers are barred from being prime minister. The last to be prime minister was Tory the Marquis of Salisbury who retired in 1902. Conservative the Earl of Home had to renounce his peerage when he went into Downing Street in 1963. As Sir Alec Douglas Home, he secured a seat in the Commons after winning a by-election at Kinross and Perthshire West. 9.37am GMT On Newsnight last night Matthew Hancock, the Conservative minister, was asked to defend the government’s record dealing with the HSBC allegations. It was not a particularly happy experience for him.Asked repeatedly by the presenter, Evan Davis, to explain what ministers knew about the allegations, which, as the Guardian reports, where discussed openly in a Commons select committee in 2011 in general terms, Hancock said it was “not appropriate” for ministers to know about specific investigations by HMRC into individuals.I, for instance, have been one of the leading people saying that those at the head of large banks that are systemically important should be liable for criminal prosecutions if they behave negatively. Because people need to know when people in positions of authority like that make a big mistake then they are held to account. And so I completely understand the anger. Sometimes these prosecutions are very complicated. I don’t know the details of it – it’s best that I don’t. But, boy, do these people who make these decisions need to be held to account. 9.13am GMT Here’s the Labour motion on tax avoidance that MPs will debate later.That this House notes with concern that following the revelations of malpractice at HSBC bank, which were first given to the Government in May 2010, just one out of 1,100 people who have avoided or evaded tax have been prosecuted; calls upon Lord Green and the Prime Minister to make a full statement about Lord Green’s role at HSBC and his appointment as a minister; regrets the failure of the Government’s deal on tax disclosure with Switzerland, which has raised less than a third of the amount promised by ministers; welcomes the proposals of charities and campaigning organisations for an anti-tax dodging bill; and further calls on the Government to clamp down on tax avoidance by introducing a penalty regime for the General Anti-Abuse Rule, which is currently too weak to be effective, closing the Quoted Eurobonds exemption loophole, ensuring that hedge funds trading shares pay the same amount of tax as other investors, introducing deeming criteria to restrict false self-employment in the construction industry, and scrapping the shares for rights scheme, which the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned could cost £1 billion in avoidance. David Cameron and George Osborne have totally failed to tackle tax avoidance in the last five years. They have failed to close the loopholes we have highlighted. And the amount of uncollected tax has risen under this government.I am determined that the next Labour government will act where the Tories have failed. “We will close loopholes that cost the exchequer billions of pounds a year, increase transparency and toughen up penalties. And we will act in our first finance bill. 9.02am GMT The revelations about how HSBC allowed its Swiss banking arm to collude in multi-million pound tax dodging have been astounding - for example, they seem to be turning the Scotsman’s Peter Jones into a revolutionary - and today they’re going to dominate proceedings in the House of Commons. They are almost certain to come up at PMQs; then they will features in a public accounts committee hearing with officials from HM Revenue and Customs; and finally they will be debated in the Commons. I will be focusing on all these developments.As usual, I will try to keep an eye on the other stuff too. Here’s the agenda for the day. Continue reading...
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