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Protesters gathered in Belfast before the G8 summit
Protesters gathered in Belfast before the G8 summit. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
Protesters gathered in Belfast before the G8 summit. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Tax havens agree to Cameron clampdown

This article is more than 10 years old
Prime minister claims success from talks ahead of G8 summit, but campaigners give only qualified support to new measures

David Cameron has secured agreement from Britain's overseas territories and Crown dependencies that they will sign up to a new clampdown on tax evasion.

On the eve of the G8 summit, leaders agreed at Downing Street talks to a series of actions aimed at promoting transparency and exchange of information between tax jurisdictions. Developing countries will now be able to request information about companies registered in British tax havens, such as the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda, after a deal was struck during what the prime minister called a "very good" meeting.

Three former Labour home secretaries, Alan Johnson, Jacqui Smith and David Blunkett, also made public a letter to Cameron offering support for his target of greater financial transparency as a weapon in the fight against terrorism and organised crime.

However, campaigners gave only qualified support to what Cameron agreed after he said in an interview with the Guardian that a new register of beneficial ownership revealing the identity of companies with cash in tax havens would not be open for public scrutiny.

It is feared this will mean that the developing world will only be able to access information from the tax havens if a specific request is made. Such a situation would be of little help to countries which do not know where cash that could be taxed in their countries is ending up. The reluctance of some nations to support complete transparency is rooted in a fear that several countries in the developing world cannot be trusted with such sensitive information.

Melanie Ward, spokeswoman for the Enough For Everyone If campaign, said the UK needed to have higher aspirations at the G8 summit in Lough Erne, which starts on Monday.

"David Cameron has today cleared a big obstacle to a clampdown on tax dodging, but a G8 agreement that will help the world's poorest is hanging in the balance," she said. "The prime minister's promise to make the global tax system work for the world's poorest is in jeopardy unless the G8 commit to making public and automatically sharing the information poor countries need to collect their missing billions.

"The acid test of the PM's efforts will be whether he delivers a G8 deal that clamps down on tax haven secrecy and phantom companies and will help poor countries collect the money they need to end the scandal that sees one in eight people go to bed hungry."

The prime minister hailed the agreement as a "very positive step forward" which would strengthen his hand in talks with the other G8 leaders in which he has made improving international tax compliance a key issue.

"It is important we are getting our house in order," he said. "What the Crown dependencies, places like Jersey and the Isle of Man, and the overseas territories, places like the Cayman Islands, have signed up to is basically the existing and the new standards for exchanging tax information. That is vital."

Now some progress has been made on the tax agenda, it is likely that the issue of Syria and the west's attitude to arming the rebels will come into focus. President Barack Obama is said to be determined to attain greater consensus on dealing with the war-torn state, where nearly 100,000 are feared to have been killed in the violence since March 2011.

In an interview with Sky News's Dermot Murnaghan to be aired on Sunday, the prime minister said he understood concerns about helping some elements of the forces fighting the Assad regime. He said Britain was already training, assisting and giving non-lethal support to the rebels but that parliament would vote if arming them became necessary.

Cameron said: "I want to help the Syrian opposition to succeed. And my argument is this: that yes there are elements of the Syrian opposition that are deeply unsavoury, that are very dangerous, very extremist, and I want nothing to do with them. I'd like them driven out of Syria – they're linked to al-Qaida. But there are elements of the Syrian opposition who want to see a free democratic, pluralistic Syria that respects the rights of minorities including Christians and we should be working with them – we are working with them."

Around 1,500 protesters gathered in Belfast on Saturday for a peaceful protest against the policies of the G8 nations.

More on this story

More on this story

  • G8 deal on tax havens a long way off

  • G8 protest in Belfast – as it happened

  • Clear political commitment by the G8 can benefit rich and poor countries

  • Tax secrecy to be swept away, says David Cameron

  • David Cameron: 'G8 summit is a chance to recover national self-confidence'

  • Meet the G8 'yarnbombers' - in pictures

  • Cameron pledges 'no further cuts to army, navy or air force'

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