David Cameron successfully argued in 2013 for trusts to be treated differently from companies in anti-money laundering rules

Panama Papers: David Cameron declared he has "no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds" after his late father Ian's tax affairs were highlighted in the document disclosure. [File photos]

David Cameron has admitted he did have a profitable stake in his father’s offshore investment fund, before selling it for around £30,000 before he became Prime Minister.

The admission comes five days after a huge cache of documents were leaked – dubbed the Panama Papers – detailing the tax affairs of thousands of individuals of worldwide.

The Prime Minister’s father, Ian Cameron, who passed away in 2010, was exposed as running a fund under the name of Blairmore Holdings in the papers.

Downing Street staffers initially said that it was a “private matter” whether or not Mr Cameron had benefitted from the fund. It later issued a series of statements denying the Prime Minister currently benefitted from offshore funds, or stood to do so in the future. Though, despite the clarifications, a number of questions still remained.

Exclusive: David Cameron admits to Robert @Peston he did have stake in his father's offshore trust #PanamaPapershttps://t.co/MbNZOtykeQ — ITV News (@itvnews) April 7, 2016

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Tax evasion is not just illegal it's immoral.People evading tax should be treated same as common thieves.This agreement helps us tackle them — George Osborne (@George_Osborne) October 29, 2014

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Labour has condemned the way information about Mr Cameron’s financial affairs was revealed with “drip, drip” statements, and the revelations will raise questions about why Mr Cameron did not admit to personally profiting until five days after the Panama Papers were leaked.

But in an interview with ITV News, he insisted that it was a "fundamental misconception" that Blairmore Holdings, set up by his father Ian Cameron the 1980s and run from the Bahamas, was set up to avoid tax. He said his father was being "unfairly written about".

He said that his and Samantha Cameron’s profit from the scheme was "subject to all the UK taxes in the normal ways".

Number 10 said Mr and Mrs Cameron bought their holding in April 1997 for £12,497 and sold it in January 2010 for £31,500.

"I paid income tax on the dividends, but there was a profit on it but it was less than the capital gains tax allowance, so I didn't pay capital gains tax, but it was subject to all the UK taxes in all the normal ways," Mr Cameron told ITV.

"So I want to be as clear as I can about the past, about the present, about the future, because frankly, I don't have anything to hide.

"I'm proud of my dad and what he did and the business he established and all the rest of it.

"I can't bear to see his name being dragged through the mud, as you can see, and for my own, I chose to take a different path from my father, grandfather and great-grandfather, who were all stockbrokers, and I've got nothing to hide in my arrangements and I'm very happy to answer questions about it."

Independent

Independent News Service