Finance Bill — House of Commons, 2016-06-28
Topic: Macroeconomics
William Arthur Roger Mullin (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In the light of our debate this morning, an appropriate opening remark would be to point out that I believe that in the next hour we are debating the most important part of this year’s Finance Bill. Many amendments have been spoken about already this morning, and I am sure that Members will forgive me if I try to make my remarks brief and to focus only on three matters: the appropriate changes discussed in amendment 1, tabled by the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) and others; new clause 8, tabled by me; and new clause 9, tabled by the right hon. Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge). Let me say at the outset that the Scottish National party supports both that amendment and that new clause I will be brief, because I want to allow more time for the right hon. Ladies to present their case as fully as they can. Let me say something in general about why we are concerned. We all know that there is huge concern among the public about the extent of tax evasion and hidden wealth. It was a growing concern before the release of the Panama papers, and I remember discussing it in this House in the first week in February. It has been fuelled by concerns as people become more aware of the hiding of money in tax havens by individuals, corporations and trusts Let us put this debate into a broader context. According to Jason Hickel of the London School of Economics, tax havens hide one sixth of the world’s total private wealth. He has estimated that at about $20 trillion. Whether that is very accurate or not, all observers would agree that the total amount of money involved is absolutely staggering in scale. Indeed, the Panama papers from Mossack Fonseca are just the tip of the iceberg as regards what we face in the world today Many issues need addressing. Neither this debate nor the proposed amendment and new clauses address them all, but they are a start. I have been very disappointed by some of the Minister’s reasoning, particularly that on amendment 1. It struck me that he started to redefine on at least three occasions what he meant by multinational. First, he seemed, in my view, to be speaking as though it was almost global in nature, then it became EU-specific, then it became about just a few countries. It struck me that it is not amendment 1 that has not been thought through thoroughly, but the Government’s response to it. If the right hon. Member for Don Valley proposes to press it to a vote, the SNP will certainly follow her into the Lobby We know that many different groups are involved. The amendments specifically refer to corporations, but more than corporations are involved. If we had tabled our own amendment, we might have chosen slightly broader amendments to encompass trusts, for example. Being reasonable, we must put ourselves in a position where we make the first step. Sometimes somebody needs to make the first step When the Minister was talking, he reminded me of the days when I used to trod through the library at Stirling University, taking students and showing them back copies of Hansard. We could look at back copies of Hansard from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the subject that arose more than any other in debates in the House was slavery. One of the arguments continually used against doing something to make slavery illegal was that it would not create a level playing field Somebody has to be first. This is not just about finance and technical considerations, but about fundamental ethical considerations. Those ethical considerations are why we hope that these matters will be pressed to a vote and we will support the right hon. Ladies in that.