Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower who revealed numerous covert global surveillance programs, was shocked by the PM’s insistence that his father’s implication in the list of high-profile tax avoiders was “a private matter”.
The late Ian Cameron’s Blairmore Holdings Inc company, set up in the 1980s, managed tens of millions of pounds for the wealthy but has not ever paid tax on UK profits.
Despite there being no suggestion that the avoidance arrangement or others exposed by the leak were anything but entirely legal, Cameron responded to the news saying:
That is a private matter, I am focused on what the government is doing”
But that defence didn’t wash well with Snowden, who was less than impressed at Cameron’s answer after the prime minister had repeatedly criticised him for leaking classified information.
In a post on Twitter on Monday, Snowden wrote simply in response to a Reuters story on Cameron’s response: “Oh, now he’s interested in privacy.”
The post has garnered nearly 18,000 re-tweets, while his sentiment has been echoed by others, including Carol Vordeman.
The former ‘Countdown star’ labelled Cameron a “hypocrite” and insisted the issue was “not a private matter”.
Other pundits, including former English rugby hooker Brian Moore, the Guardian’s Tom Clark and Kevin Maguire of the Mirror, were equally unimpressed.
In 2012, Cameron called out comedian Jimmy Carr for conducting “morally wrong” tax arrangements.
Reports of Carr’s financial arrangements suggested “straightforward tax avoidance”, the PM said at the time, adding that it was unfair on the people paying to watch him perform that he did not pay taxes in the same way they did.
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk/
Author: Aubrey Allegretti
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