Politics

Brits will protest outside Downing Street this weekend after similar protests in Iceland toppled Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson. Thousands of people in Iceland protested in front of the parliament building this week calling for the Prime Minister's resignation over the Panama Papers scandal. Demonstrators vented their anger following revelations that Gunnlaugsson once owned – and his wife still owns – an offshore investment company with multimillion-pound claims on Iceland’s failed banks. Protests in Iceland call for prime minister's resignation over #PanamaLeaks allegations https://t.co/39JK7QqNz8 https://t.co/BAfd5xLpfW...

America's leading Republican candidates for president, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, have rabidly loyal grassroots voters. Both men's supporters viscerally hate the other and use social media to slander and brutalise the other man. Outside the conservative bubble, there is barely a hair's breadth between Cruz and Trump. One is a religious zealot who makes hay with bigots, the other is a crypto-fascist demagogue who wins favour with self-styled racists. Both are beholden to the extreme right in the Republican...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Please have  a watch of this video of George Osborne's 2003 appearance on BBC2's Daily Politics programme. The future chancellor encourages a caller to look into 'clever financial products' that let homeowners to pass on the value of their home to their children and also get personal care paid for by the state. 'I probably shouldn't be advocating this on television,' he later says during the conversation. Watch Video Here

Two days on from the Panama Papers leak, the Independent has revealed that HMRC - the government body responsible for collecting taxes - actually pays rent on its head office to a company based in a tax haven! Eleven million documents were leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca on Monday highlight the extent to which UK residents and its institutions are taking advantage of tax havens such as Panama. Over half of the companies listed in the document cache are registered in...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor This really didn't go very well; supremely wealthy Tory candidate for Mayor looked pretty out of touch with the city he wants to run during a TV interview. The BBC's Norman Smith asked Goldsmith which team play at Loftus Road, he had no idea (it's QPR). Then he was asked the next type station going east on Central Line from Tottenham Court Road, he had no idea (it's Holborn). He was finally asked where the...

Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson is set to resign after revelations of his tax affairs were revealed in the Panama Papers leak. The documents from Mossack Fonseca showed that the disgraced PM hid  millions of dollars of investments in his country’s banks in an offshore company under his wife's name. Although it isn't an illegal act, thousands of protesters turned up last night calling for his head, the vast majority of whom still have a sour taste in their mouths following the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The huge leak from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca may have dragged in the PMs own late father. 11.5 million documents have been leaked, document work stretching back nearly 40 years and a firm Ian Cameron was director of, has cropped up in the paperwork. It is alleged that Cameron’s dad was embroiled in recruiting what has been dubbed a small army of Bahamas residents, to sign paperwork on behalf of an offshore fund, which...

The Panama Papers, published today in an unprecedented data leak, confirmed once again that it is the super-rich and not the super-poor that are causing the real headache for Britain. Russian president Vladimir Putin has been caught up in a $2 billion offshore trail and a raft of wealthy UK residents have also been implicated, including David Cameron’s father and three senior Tory figures. UK tax fraud costs government £16 billion a year according to HMRC, which makes up almost half of the total £34bn “tax...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The video below shows Iceland's prime minister storming out of an awkward interview when he was questioned about his interests in a secret offshore firm. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, came to power in 2013 on a wave of anti-banking anger after Iceland's financial meltdown. However, leaked documents have linked him and his wife to an offshore company, which it is alleged millions were hidden while his country nearly went under. He is facing a no-confidence vote over the revelations and...