John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on the public anger towards Google’s tax liability this year of £50m despite UK sales of £5.7bn, said:

“This has become a yearly insult to those taxpayers who play by the rules and can’t afford an army of accountants to lower their tax liability.

“There will be millions of hardworking people in this country who are struggling to make ends meet, and will look at the paltry amounts these big companies like Google are paying and rightly be disgusted.

“The problem goes to the top of this Government. The Tories’ failure to clamp down on tax avoidance has meant that large multinational companies are paying what they want, rather than their fair share.

“Philip Hammond’s predecessor described these derisory sums from Google as a “victory”, but what it really shows is the lack of ambition by this Government to bring fairness to the tax system.

“The next Labour government will introduce our Tax Transparency and Enforcement Programme, and truly clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion.”