Jeremy Corbyn calls on the Queen to APOLOGISE if she has money in trust havens to avoid paying tax

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested the Queen should apologise over her alleged tax affairs (Rex/PA)[/caption]

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested that the Queen should apologise if it is found her private estate has invested £10m of her personal fortune offshore to avoid paying tax in Britain.

Asked if the Queen should apologise for the offshore investments revealed in the papers, Mr Corbyn told the CBI’s annual conference in London: “Well anyone that is putting money into tax havens in order to avoid taxation in Britain, and obviously investigations have to take place, should do two things – not just apologise for it but also recognise what it does to our society.

“Because if a very wealthy person wants to avoid taxation in Britain and therefore put money into a tax haven somewhere, who loses? Schools, hospitals, housing, all those public services lose and the rest of the population have to pay to cover up the deficit created by that.

“And so I think with the Paradise Papers, which I have been reading through like all of us this morning, are quite shocking.”

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The Duchy of Lancaster, the private estate of the Queen, was found to have millions of pounds invested in offshore arrangements.

Around £10 million from the Queen’s private fund was paid into funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda between 2004 and 2005, according to reports.

A small part of the cash was traced to a lender which has previously been criticised for ripping off poor customers.

The Queen voluntarily pays tax on any income she receives from the Duchy.

A spokesman for the estate said: “We operate a number of investments and a few of these are with overseas funds.

“All of our investments are fully audited and legitimate.”

Mr Corbyn and Labour are calling for a public inquiry into aggressive tax avoidance to urgently restore public confidence in the tax system.

But Theresa May has refused to commit to a formal probe or to introducing a public register of who owns offshore companies and trusts in British tax havens, saying only that people should “pay the tax that is due”.

Asked whether she would insist on an inquiry and public registers, the Prime Minister told the CBI: “We have seen more revenues coming to HMRC over the last few years – since 2010 £160 billion extra that they have been able to raise.

“But we do work, there’s already work that’s been done to ensure that we see greater transparency in our dependencies and British overseas territories and we continue to work with them.

“HMRC is already able to see more information about the ownership of shell companies, for example, so that they can ensure that people are paying their tax.

“We want people to pay the tax that is due.”

The Paradise Papers represent the biggest data leak since the Panama Papers release last year.

Hundreds of individuals and companies reportedly have had their overseas investments exposed by the files, which are also said to reveal that major global companies have exploited offshore schemes to avoid tax.

A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn has since denied calling on the Queen to apologise for her estate investing in tax havens.

They said: Jeremy did not call for the Queen to apologise but said anyone who puts money into a tax haven to avoid paying tax should, and that they should recognise the damage done by avoidance to society.”

They added: “Labour is calling for a public inquiry into tax avoidance.”