Many constituents have written to me about tax havens, especially in light of the incident with Mossback Fonseca and the so called ‘Panama Papers’. As I said recently on an episode of Question Time, it doesn’t matter who you are, everyone should pay their fair share of tax.

I fear that there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the Prime Minister’s tax affairs. To be clear, the PM’s stake in Blairmore Holdings was not tax avoidance. It was an investment in a business which was subject to all the proper tax that any UK citizen would have to pay. As his recently published tax returns have shown, these are entirely legitimate and in accordance with the law.

This Government has worked hard since 2010 to close tax loopholes and crack down on tax evasion measures, having introduced 40 measures to prevent tax dodging and has made it clear that tactics like these are unacceptable in the UK. The Government is committed to a proportionate, tailored response to improve tax transparency, especially in tax havens. Before we came to Government in 2010, there were lots of gaps and loopholes that companies were able to exploit to avoid paying their fair share of tax. I am pleased that we have taken action to plug these gaps, and have raised an extra £100 billion from business as a result of our reforms.

This Government has also led the global community in preventing tax evasion. By working with our international partners to modernise international tax rules, it is now much harder for people to escape paying taxes by hiding money overseas. Nevertheless, the Government wants to see significant progress ahead of the May Anti-Corruption Summit on criminal financing, with Ministers holding extensive discussions with the Overseas Territories ahead of the event.

I am confident the Government will continue its work to combat tax avoidance, which is damaging to the effectiveness of the tax system and imposes additional costs on all taxpayers. Thanks to the changes that have been made, big multinational corporations know they cannot carry on as they have done in the past, and must expect to pay more tax.