Revelations in the Guardian today have exposed apparent widespread “collusion in tax fraud”, by HSBC bank, following a leak of information from the bank’s Swiss arm. Stephen Green, boss of HSBC during much of the time that this activity was taking place, left the bank in 2010. He was immediately made minister for trade and investment in David Cameron’s government; despite HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) having been given detailed evidence of wrongdoing at HSBC.
These revelations give the lie to protestations from the ConDem government that they are taking tax evasion seriously. Not only was Steven Green enobled and brought into the government, but in addition HMRC has been woefully slow at persuing those individuals implicated by the leaked information. Far from bringing these criminals to justice, tax evaders are often offered secret deals that keep their names out of the public domain, often including light penalties of only 10% of tax due, in return for immunity from prosecution. Just £133m has been recovered from a list of 6000 British clients of the bank, and only 1 person has been prosecuted. The value of client assets covered by the leak totals £78 billion.
The head of HMRC at the time the information was handed over, Dave Hartnett, went on to work for HSBC two years later.
As Margaret Hodge, chair of parliament’s public accounts committee, has rightly said: “If this had been benefits scroungers, they would have been queuing around the courtrooms to have their court appearances.”
This culture of “one law for the rich, another for the poor” within our political establishment has to be ended. This culture is fed by the fact that our most powerful political parties are funded primarily by wealthy individuals and big corporations. The kind of screaming injustice that we see in this story is repeated everywhere we look. This government has presided over the biggest increase in inequaliy seen in a generation. Stephen Green has a pension pot of £19 million, while our most vulnerable families, unable to find suitable affordable housing, are stuck with the “bedroom tax”. All in the name of “growth” and “austerity”
If the ConDem government were really interested in growth, they would start funnelling money towards the poorest in society: those who are most likely to spend their money back into the economy, rather than squirreling it away in a Swiss bank account.
We still live in a democracy. We still have a vote. Let start using it. Let’s take back our political system and make it work for the 99% instead of the 1%.