U.K.'s Cameron ensnared in Panama Papers scandal
British Prime Minister David Cameron was dragged into the offshore tax haven scandal Tuesday over his late father's connections to an investment fund that avoided paying tax in the United Kingdom by having its directors hold board meetings in Switzerland and the Bahamas rather than London.
Ian Cameron, a stock broker who died in 2010, was one of the people whose name appeared on documents stolen from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and leaked to dozens of media companies around the world.
The company he set up was called Blairmore.
Downing Street initially called the discovery a "private matter." It then confirmed that the prime minister does not hold any shares in the company. Cameron then released another statement saying, "In terms of my own financial affairs, I own no shares. I have a salary as prime minister and I have some savings., which I get interest from and I have a house, which we used to live in, which we now let out while we are living in Downing Street and that's all I have."
Cameron added: "I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that. And, so that, I think, is a very clear description." Downing Street added to that by saying Cameron, his wife and their children do not benefit from any offshore funds.
However, the issue is particularly embarrassing for Cameron because he has called for more transparency over tax havens. The leak also showed that Mossack Fonseca registered more than 100,000 offshore firms in the British Virgin Islands, a British overseas territory.
Labour Party opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn called for Cameron to "set the record straight" over his family's current connections to the firm started by his father.