‘Genuinely angry’ Cameron blames Labour in Google tax row

This is not the first time Cameron has gotten in trouble when talking about migrants in Calais.

A Labour source rejected the suggestion that the party would “open the doors” to migrants, pointing out that Mr Corbyn had said priority should be given to refugees – particularly children – with links to Britain and that applications should be processed more quickly.

Cameron was asked to state his position on the deal during Prime Minister’s questions on January 27.

All of which makes Labour’s mealy-mouthed protestations over the prime minister’s remarks even more pathetic.

Cameron was speaking about a visit last week by opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to migrant camps in Dunkirk and Calais in northern France.

However, he said he had been genuinely angry over Google’s failure to pay much tax, adding that this largely occurred when Labour was in power from 1997 to 2010.

In the House of Commons earlier on Thursday, Shadow Commons Leader Chris Bryant won cheers from Labour MPs as he listed the ethnic backgrounds of many MPs and ministers, describing them as “a bunch of migrants”.

Most likely they will play by the rules, respect the rule of law and appreciate paying taxes binds society together, no matter how much we hate doing it. It’s a social contract, if we stopped paying, it won’t be long until we are back to throwing our faeces into the streets.

French MEP Eva Joly, the vice-chairwoman of the Special European Parliamentary Committee on Tax Rulings, characterised the settlement as proof the United Kingdom was preparing “to become a kind of tax haven to attract multinationals”. We pay tax based on the value added by the economic activity of our staff here, at the current standard rate: 20%. That will only make the situation in Calais much worse.

“Maybe you should start by calling Tony Blair – you can get him at JP Morgan. Call Alistair Darling – I think he is at Morgan Stanley, but it is hard to keep up”, he told MPs. What should Google pay in the UK?

He said: “We can’t have mates rates when it comes to taxes, but that’s what Osborne’s cosy deals are offering to giant firms”.

Labour’s Andy Slaughter said the comments were “truly shocking”.

However, there are indications some in the Cabinet are not satisfied with the £130m deal, with business minister Anna Soubry admitting it did not appear to be an “awful lot of money”.

The approach is known as the “dead cat” strategy, supposedly a key tactic of Conservative party campaign chief Lynton Crosby.

“I do dispute the figures that you give”, Cameron replied. “The truth is that they are running to catch up, but they haven’t got a leg to stand on”.

Rival politicians wasted no time condemning what they said was Cameron’s “inflammatory” and “divisive” language.

He called on the Government to accept more unaccompanied children immediately and join efforts to share refugees around the EU.

“And I have to say to you, you can if you want criticise HMRC but HMRC’s work is investigated by the National Audit Office and when they did that they found that the settlements that they have reached with companies are fair, that is how it works”.