UK Prime Minister David Cameron. UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

David Cameron had hoped to focus on campaigning to keep Britain in the EU before a referendum in June, but questions about his wealth and government spending have blurred the prime minister’s message.

After four days and four different statements over his late father’s inclusion in the Panama Papers, Cameron said on Thursday he once had a stake in his father’s offshore trust and had profited from it, spurring calls for the leader to resign.

It is unlikely Cameron will follow Iceland’s prime minister and leave office over the documents, but the blow to his image could hurt his campaign to persuade Britons to stay in the European Union.

On Thursday, Cameron used a TV interview to admit he had a holding in his late father’s Panamanian trust, Blairmore, but had sold it in 2010 before becoming prime minister. “Of course I did own stocks and shares in the past — quite naturally because my father was a stockbroker. I sold them all in 2010, because if I was going to become prime minister I didn’t want anyone to say you have other agendas, vested interests,” he told ITV television.

“We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000 pounds.”

He underlined that he had paid tax on the dividends and on the profits, and said his father had left him £300,000 on his death. He also suggested he had not immediately detailed his affairs because he had struggled with the critical coverage of his father, “a man I love and admire and miss every day”.

There is no indication that he or his father had done anything illegal, but by casting a spotlight on Cameron’s wealth, the admission has fuelled a public perception that his Conservative Party rules to protect the rich while punishing the poorest with its austerity push.

“Far from being the end of the matter, the questions keep coming,” said Tom Watson, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party.

Calls for Cameron to resign trended on Twitter, with one user saying that if “Iceland can do it, I’m bloody sure the UK can too”. Others accused him of hypocrisy for having used an offshore unit while calling for an end to tax avoidance.

Iceland PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson quit his position on Tuesday after the leaked files showed his wife owned an offshore firm with big claims on Iceland’s collapsed banks.

Government ministers played down any chance of Cameron’s removal from power, but the revelations will only fuel growing discontent in his ruling Conservative Party over the leading role he is playing in the campaign to keep Britain in the EU. reuters

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