05/04/2016 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be

With me are the broadcaster Henry Bonsu and the former

Labour Trade Minister Lord Digby Jones.

Tomorrow's front pages starting with...

The Telegraph says there's growing speculation over

the Prime Minister's tax arrangements after his late father

Ian was named in the Panama papers. More on the leaked papers

It says the new Fifa boss elected to clean up world football

is the latest name to be connected to the scandal.

The Metro reports David Cameron has denied he or his family have

The Financial Times leads with a crackdown

on corporate tax loopholes by the Obama administration.

It says multinationals are furious at attempts to stop them

Reports that criminals have used tax loopholes to invest in London

properties is in the Times. It also carries a photograph of the woman

murdered by two teenage girls who were convicted today.

It says 1.8 million illegal migrants entered the EU last year.

A similar top story for the Daily Mail which says a staggering number

of jihadist are exploiting the crisis.

And the New Day carries a photo of Lucca, the dog

who is being awarded a medal for military bravery.

We will dip into some of those. Take us to the Telegraph, a lot more

panama talks with reference to the Prime Minister. The picture they

have chosen is pretty good because it shows him looking slightly

invasive, he is half peering over his glasses to give the impression

of a guy who is being pursued. I am not sure how much of a mystery there

is. He was asked a straight question, do you or have your family

ever benefited from any offshore trusts, the implication that there

is one started by his father and is worth today about ?35 million, his

father having died five or so years ago. He carefully responded in the

present and saying, I am the Prime Minister, I get my salary, I have

got my house and my savings and that is it. I do not have any shares or

offshore trusts or funds, nothing like that. Downing Street issued a

couple of statements later to clarify what he said and said, it is

time to put up or shut up on the Prime Minister. Does the mystery

deepened? I agree with Henry, the photograph is one of those which has

been taken greatly by somebody who shows a man under pressure. It looks

like he is under pressure, that is what press photographers do. It

would have been better that instead of saying I do not benefit, my

family does not benefit, these are the facts of the matter. This is

what my father did, I have no control over that, this is how the

family benefited, but I have not and do not. Or I did, but I do not now.

Get out there with it and get the initiative. The Telegraph say,

rather than qualified and highly specific statements he would be far

better off being completely transparent. Then he would kill it.

He has got a good answer if he says, I have not done this, but my dad

did. The company that his father had was called Blair Morant Holdings.

And then there is a cartoon on the far right. The man is looking and

saying, there is a triangle in Bermuda where all our money goes. It

is difficult for the Prime Minister because he has pushed this issue. He

says he will in a conference in an's time. There are two reasons why

politicians are pushing it, one is because they are F after every penny

they can get. But you cannot ask all these people who have not got the

value of the money to do it. You need to be earning big money for it

to be worth your while. But they are paying a lot of tax. Sweetheart

deals. The Metro says Cameron, put up or shut up. I think this has

legs, as they say in Fleet Street. A final paragraph in the Telegraph. It

says David Cameron inherited ?300,000 in 2010 and he may have

avoided reference to the past because of that. We shall maybe find

out more. Take us to the Guardian. The Guardian are running a big

article on one aspect of it which is coming out records of some other guy

in the panama scandal. It is somebody who has been buying and

selling football television rights. One of the agreements and was

prepared and signed on behalf of of the guy who has just become the Fifa

achieved. There is not one scintilla of accusation in the Guardian that

he has done anything wrong and there is nothing to say that we should say

he ever has and that is important to say. I am glad you have said it, I

would have felt duty bound to say so. It is what happens on your

watch. But hear what you have got is something coming out of panama and

it is significant that we have not heard anywhere near everything that

is coming out of this yet. Here is somebody who got voted in, he is

here in Fifa to clear it up in the post-blatter era and he is in

trouble after three and a half minutes. It is not that he did

anything wrong, it is the association, the perception, and

that will tarnish his image before he has even started. Fifa has been

hammered over the past few years, but Uefa where Gianni Infantino was

previously, they have so far avoided this level of problem and scrutiny.

But because he was there beforehand and his name appears, that is one of

the reasons why people will now look as closely at Uefa as they have at

Fifa. Let me move it on. The Financial Times and Chris land. This

one is not by association like Fifa. This is a serving leader of a

country, democratically elected, the Icelandic Prime Minister. I will let

Henry have a go at pronouncing his name, not me. Here is someone in

office who has actually been caught up in this scandal and rightly he is

resigning. But the interesting thing is on day one he did not, so 10,000

people, which is... They reckon 20 2000. The population of Iceland is

just over 300,000. It is amazing, they have said we will not put up

with this. It calls into probity people who are democratically

elected when they stand there and say, vote for me. I can pronounce

his name. I think he sold his shares in the company and a question to his

wife for $1 or whatever. Then he was asked about it on camera and walked

out of the interview saying it was ridiculous. A few years ago one of

their main banks went under and his wife stood to benefit from decisions

that he made as Prime Minister. He was not Prime Minister when the bank

went down. He was in the years following. I do not think it was on

his watch when the bank happened. I want to squeeze the times in before

we talk about Tatar 's real. -- Tata steel. A lot of properties in London

at the top and are owned by companies were, according to the

Times, what a surprise, where are these companies based? Panama. So

you have got people who are from countries like Nigeria, Azerbaijan,

which I mentioned, Chile, and all these properties are in London and

they are actually part of the problem and the issue. I believe

London is the capital of the world at the moment, it has made an

enormous success in so many areas, but it does nothing for the image if

you have got these people wrapped up in shady deals. I am going to move

back to the Financial Times. We will bypass one story and then talk about

Port Talbot. A huge story, very important to get this right for the

government. Huge numbers of jobs, they are talking about 3000 in this

piece. But if you look further down the value chain there are far more

jobs involved. Everybody is putting their hopes on the founder of the

commodities group Liberty House. But he has a list he wants to be

satisfied before he does anything. Power, pensions and plant. The

pensions are huge. 15 billion. In a former life I used to be a corporate

lawyer and I used to buy businesses. I can tell you now if I was acting

for a client to buy this I would say, I am not picking up 15 billion

in pensions. A lot of that is final salary schemes which do not happen

any more and it happened when British Steel was owned by the

taxpayer. In Germany the exempt the big power users from the green levy.

The left in Britain that says all these businesses, we have to tax

them... Most of the left. But actually it will put a lot of people

on the dole. Thirdly, it is environmental. What is this about

the left? I do not expect most people in the south-east to nowhere

Port Talbot is, but if you drive past it, it is huge. His biggest

problem will be that he would get rid of the blast furnace and put an

electric arc furnaces would not stand scrap metal. That is what he

does. But there is a different customer for that. The quality is

not quite so good bringing it down from slab to sheet to get it into

the auto industry. It is OK, but it is not quite so good. Would people

buy it? Yes, but the quality would not be so good. I think Sajiv Javid

is playing a blinder. He is the first Business Secretary for a long

time, but he has been in business. There is a novelty. Most people have

never run their own business. He has run a business. Gentle man, just as

it was getting lively, time is up. Time is up. It is a pleasure. All

the front pages are online on the BBC News website where you can read

the detailed review of the papers. It is all there for you. Each

night's edition of the papers is posted on the page shortly after we

have finished. Thank you Henry and Digby. Goodbye.

Most of us today managed to get away with some sunshine, there were a

couple of showers about, but that was pretty much it.