David Cameron admits he could’ve handled the Panama Papers better
Prime minister David Cameron has admitted that he could've handled the scrutiny of his financial affairs better.
Speaking at the Conservative party's spring forum, he accepted blame for the mishandling of revelations about his late father's offshore fund.
He made the comments as crowds gathered outside of Downing Street to call for his resignation in light of the scandal.
The revelation came after four different statements from the government over his late father's inclusion in the "Panama Papers".
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"It has not been a great week. I know that I should have handled this better, I could have handled this better," Cameron said today.
"I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them."
Cameron has previously said that Blairmore Investment, the trust set up by his father, was not established to avoid tax.
In his ITV interview, Cameron said: "It was set up after exchange controls went so that people who wanted to invest in dollar denominated shares and companies could do so."
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"The point is that it was a unit trust. So the money it had was other people's money on which they pay tax. If you were a United Kingdom owner of these things you paid income tax on your dividends and you paid tax in the normal way. If you were a foreigner you would pay tax in your own country."
He added that there are thousands of unit trusts and millions of people who own shares in Britain, many of whom hold them through unit trusts.
Cameron said he sold 5,000 units in the trust, which he owned jointly with his wife Samantha, in January 2010, before he became Prime Minister, for around £30,000.