UK Crown dependencies hit back at UK opposition party leader over ‘tax haven’ label

The UK Labour Party leader Mr Edward Miliband has come under fire from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, after he announced the party wanted the three jurisdictions persecuted as “tax havens”.

Earlier this month, Miliband told newspapers he was asking the UK’s coalition government to press for tougher EU action against so-called “tax havens”. According to an anonymous party spokesman, Miliband wants “The UK’s tax havens” to be targetted first. He is urging the government to force the crown dependencies to reveal the names of wealthy UK investors who use tax planning, with the threat of putting them on the OECD’s blacklist if they do not co-operate. This policy, Miliband’s spokesman implied, would be included in Labour’s 2015 election manifesto.

Jersey Finance retaliated with a critical statement, backed by a letter to the Financial Times by chief executive Geoff Cook TEP. “It is disappointing when political leaders choose to make inaccurate accusations about Jersey which do not reflect the positive contribution that Jersey and the other Crown Dependencies make to the broader UK economy”, it said.

It also pointed out that the Foot Review, commissioned and published by the previous Labour government, had concluded that the amount of tax avoided by UK corporates using crown dependencies and overseas territories was significantly lower than the “wildly inflated figures produced by self-appointed lobby groups such as the Tax Justice Network”.

“The characterisation of Jersey as a tax haven fails to recognise the regular endorsements that the island has received from the OECD and IMF”, it added.

The Isle of Man’s chief minister Allan Bell said Miliband was “ill-informed” and had made his statement to boost his own image. “You must look at Ed Miliband’s own position at the moment, he has been under severe attack for lack of leadership”, Bell told Manx Radio. “He is looking for scapegoats.”

This interpretation was echoed by Guernsey’s treasury and resources minister Charles Parkinson, who dismissed Miliband’s comments as “without credibility”.

“They are political posturing by a Labour leader who is struggling in the opinion polls”, he said.