0:00:18 > 0:00:21Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be
0:00:21 > 0:00:22bringing us tomorrow.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24With me are the journalist Mihir Bose and former pensions
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Minister Baroness Ros Altmann.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Tomorrow's front pages, starting with the Metro which leads
0:00:30 > 0:00:32with Jeremy Corbyn's apparent call
0:00:32 > 0:00:35for the Queen to apologise for using an offshore fund
0:00:35 > 0:00:38for investment purposes.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41The Daily Express's top story is what it calls the cover-up over
0:00:41 > 0:00:50how foreign aid budgets are drawn up.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55The I focuses on the measures Apple took advantage of to reduce its tax
0:00:55 > 0:01:01burden.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04The Telegraph features a warning from one of Donald Trump's senior
0:01:04 > 0:01:07advisers that a compromise with the EU over Brexit may affect any future
0:01:07 > 0:01:14trade deal with the US. Finally, The Guardian also carries
0:01:14 > 0:01:18the Paradise Papers leak. The paper features a large picture of Lewis
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Hamilton standing alongside a private plane which the paper says
0:01:21 > 0:01:27he avoided paying VAT on. So, let's begin. Let's start with
0:01:27 > 0:01:32the big story that's been running the last couple of days. This is
0:01:32 > 0:01:37from the Paradise Papers. Let's start with the I. Revealed how Apple
0:01:37 > 0:01:40avoided tax, billions. We are focussing on Apple because of the
0:01:40 > 0:01:50amount of money involved.Huge sums. The amount of tax they haven't paid
0:01:50 > 0:01:53apparently is so enormous and especially when you think that they
0:01:53 > 0:01:58have been one of the biggest taxpayers but their earnings have
0:01:58 > 0:02:05been so enormous, the tax rate they are estimated to be paying is
0:02:05 > 0:02:10somewhere between 2% and 5%. Most of us pay way over that on whatever we
0:02:10 > 0:02:15earn. Which is nothing like what Apple earn. Of course, they have
0:02:15 > 0:02:22taken advantage of things that are entirely legal. They've used one of
0:02:22 > 0:02:26the tricks apparently which is called the double Irish. They've got
0:02:26 > 0:02:31earnings they make in the States and they book them via Ireland and that
0:02:31 > 0:02:36means they don't have to pay any tax in the way that they would have to
0:02:36 > 0:02:40if they declared it in the US, for example. So, there are lots of ways
0:02:40 > 0:02:44in which I think we need to have some kind of further crackdown on
0:02:44 > 0:02:49tax avoidance. The Government's already been trying to tighten up on
0:02:49 > 0:02:52tax avoidance and has collected billions of pounds extra over the
0:02:52 > 0:02:59last two or three years. But clearly there are still major loopholes and
0:02:59 > 0:03:02companies understandably are doing their best to take advantage of
0:03:02 > 0:03:10them.I think the other problem is that we have dom Indians, Crown dom
0:03:10 > 0:03:16Indians which are -- -- dominions. There is no corporation tax. We need
0:03:16 > 0:03:23to look into that. Where we are getting into is this is legal,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27perfectly legal, but there is a moral question of whether a company
0:03:27 > 0:03:30like Apple which actually projects itself, if you like, as a moral
0:03:30 > 0:03:36leader, should be doing this. That really is the question.It's
0:03:36 > 0:03:40interesting that you talk about the offshore angle of this because of
0:03:40 > 0:03:48course Apple has put its money in Jersey. The Guardian, which focuses
0:03:48 > 0:03:56more on the Lewis Hamilton revelations. People looking at his
0:03:56 > 0:04:02affairs took advantage of the rules in the Isle of Man.Yes, this is
0:04:02 > 0:04:07where he has a jet which is leased to an Isle of Man company and the
0:04:07 > 0:04:12question there is, therefore, the VAT is not paid on it. Now the VAT
0:04:12 > 0:04:16is not paid on it because most of the jet is supposed to be used for
0:04:16 > 0:04:20official purposes. It's a question of whether the Isle of Man, although
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Lewis Hamilton is perfectly clear, he does use it for private purposes,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29but the question is, is the Isle of Man doing - observing its own rules
0:04:29 > 0:04:33properly and that's what HMRC is going to look into. These are the
0:04:33 > 0:04:37questions, if you have these tax havens then the problem is how well
0:04:37 > 0:04:43are they policed? For the tax havens their selling point is come to us
0:04:43 > 0:04:47and and you don't have to pay tax, so why should they bother about
0:04:47 > 0:04:50policing it?Lewis Hamilton is saying I left it to the
0:04:50 > 0:04:54professionals, they manage affairs for me. Of course if there's an
0:04:54 > 0:05:00opportunity to avoid this tax and it's £3. 3 million of VAT that was
0:05:00 > 0:05:05refunded to him by the Isle of Man, then that's what he pace them for.
0:05:05 > 0:05:11The problem we have got is that the Isle of Man may not be implementing
0:05:11 > 0:05:14the rules.That's exactly the point The Guardian is making as well. It's
0:05:14 > 0:05:18got a quote by a Lord Professor saying no one seems to be enforcing
0:05:18 > 0:05:23the laws that exist. Can I take you both on to the front page of the
0:05:23 > 0:05:28Metro which introduces the political dimension in this story. It has
0:05:28 > 0:05:34comments by Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader on its front page. You
0:05:34 > 0:05:39are shaking your head.Yeah, I think to make political capital out of
0:05:39 > 0:05:43this and especially against the Queen seems to me to be very, very
0:05:43 > 0:05:48distasteful.Is he singling out the Queen, though, I don't think he did.
0:05:48 > 0:05:55He said everybody.She is included in that group really. There is no
0:05:55 > 0:06:00distinction. If he was saying we have to tighten up and we must not
0:06:00 > 0:06:08allow these things to happen, I understand that. But the Queen in
0:06:08 > 0:06:13particular voluntarily pays tax on her earnings. The Metro has used her
0:06:13 > 0:06:17picture on the front page as if somehow she's done something
0:06:17 > 0:06:22terribly wrong. Quite honestly, I think this is really unfair. First
0:06:22 > 0:06:28of all, the sums relative to what the Queen has are not large. She
0:06:28 > 0:06:32probably had no idea what the money was invested in. The point is this
0:06:32 > 0:06:38is entirely legal and she volunteers to pay tax which she doesn't need to
0:06:38 > 0:06:45pay.Probably ill-advised to make the investment they did. I agree,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Corbyn is basically saying this money hadn't gone there, it would
0:06:48 > 0:06:54have gone into schools, hospitals, he is making a populist point. The
0:06:54 > 0:06:57whole question is what has his party or any party done it look at our tax
0:06:57 > 0:07:02system? We have a very odd tax system where we allow people who are
0:07:02 > 0:07:05non-residents here not to pay tax. I think people who live in this
0:07:05 > 0:07:07country should be taxed on everything they earn in this
0:07:07 > 0:07:13country. And we should look at the business of having offshore polices
0:07:13 > 0:07:16-- places where you can put money which is in a way controlled by the
0:07:16 > 0:07:23Crown.Yes, it is.We need to look at that.They're British offshore
0:07:23 > 0:07:26territories. If the British people want the system to change, the
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Government will need to change the system. But to make out like
0:07:31 > 0:07:36somebody is doing something terribly wrong when it's not illegal, you
0:07:36 > 0:07:40either make it illegal or why are you criticising them in this way?I
0:07:40 > 0:07:45am going to move you both on to a different story on the front page of
0:07:45 > 0:07:49The Financial Times. Boris Johnson and remarks he has made about a
0:07:49 > 0:07:56British Iranian woman being held in jail in Iran.Yeah, this is a story
0:07:56 > 0:08:00about a British Iranian woman being accused of trying to topple the
0:08:00 > 0:08:05Government. She claims she - she denies it and she is in jail. Boris
0:08:05 > 0:08:11Johnson a few days ago talking to a committee in parliament and the lady
0:08:11 > 0:08:18had come back in 2016 to visit this country said she had come and, you
0:08:18 > 0:08:22know, done some journalism teaching. She has worked for journalistic
0:08:22 > 0:08:26organisations. Actually she said she had come to bring her children to
0:08:26 > 0:08:30visit...It was a private visit.A private visit. The Iranians have
0:08:30 > 0:08:34used that to say you are denying that you want to destabilise our
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Government, look you have been teaching jornlism, you are part of a
0:08:37 > 0:08:42media conspiracy and they want increase the charge. It raised the
0:08:42 > 0:08:44question, doesn't Boris Johnson ever consult anybody at the Foreign
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Office as to what it is? He is the Foreign Secretary. He is the man who
0:08:48 > 0:08:53represents us. Surely before he goes and says something in this - in
0:08:53 > 0:08:56parliament, he should check what the status is.I suppose to be fair to
0:08:56 > 0:08:59the Foreign Secretary he didn't say she had been teaching journalism in
0:08:59 > 0:09:05Iran.Nevertheless, he should be aware of how sensitive it is and how
0:09:05 > 0:09:11that remark may be misinterpreted, where a woman is impressed by the
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Government, and they refuse to believe that her defence she's in
0:09:13 > 0:09:17the trying to topple that Government.She came into court and
0:09:17 > 0:09:24said I was just here to introduce my children to their grandparents. I
0:09:24 > 0:09:28haven't anything to do with propaganda or anything to do with
0:09:28 > 0:09:35political action against the regime. Four days after Boris Johnson said
0:09:35 > 0:09:39she had been teaching people journalism, she was summoned to
0:09:39 > 0:09:44court again and she's now been accused of having new evidence
0:09:44 > 0:09:47against her, producing propaganda and the fear is that she may
0:09:47 > 0:09:50actually have her sentence increased. This is really serious
0:09:50 > 0:09:54stuff.Let me take you now to the front page of the Daily Telegraph
0:09:54 > 0:09:58which leads with a Brexit story. Don't let the EU dictate Brexit
0:09:58 > 0:10:06warns the US.Well, this seems to me this is - the US Secretary visiting
0:10:06 > 0:10:10this country, he seems to be suggesting is that the US would
0:10:10 > 0:10:16prefer a hard Brexit. If you come to an arrangement as we leave which
0:10:16 > 0:10:21has, as he puts it landmines, doesn't specify what he has in mind,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23presumably some sort of arrangement where the transitional arrangement
0:10:23 > 0:10:29carries on for a bit, he says that will delay the US and the UK having
0:10:29 > 0:10:33its own trade arrangements and he seems to be sort of really saying we
0:10:33 > 0:10:38should have off the cliff exit and therefore, there will be a quick...
0:10:38 > 0:10:43Helpful, unhelpful?He seems to be threatening the UK, if we dare to
0:10:43 > 0:10:47leave the EU but still keep some of its rules and regulations, we can't
0:10:47 > 0:10:52expect to have a good trade deal with the US. To be quite honest, I
0:10:52 > 0:10:57really think that those remarks are terribly unhelpful. We are in this
0:10:57 > 0:11:00very delicate position of trying to negotiate a good outcome for Brexit
0:11:00 > 0:11:05and it may be that we have to keep some of the EU's regulations, many
0:11:05 > 0:11:11of which are designed to protect the public and that might mean that we
0:11:11 > 0:11:16can't have GM foods or clor innated chicken even if the US wants to sell
0:11:16 > 0:11:20it to us, that shouldn't be something the US comes in and
0:11:20 > 0:11:26dictates to us. It's up to our negotiators.Thank you very much.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30That's it for The Papers tonight. You can see the front pages of the
0:11:30 > 0:11:34papers online on the BBC news website. It's all there for you
0:11:34 > 0:11:40seven days a week. If you miss the programme any
0:11:40 > 0:11:48evening you can watch it later on the iPlayer. Thank you again. Bye.