06/11/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow.

With me are the journalist

Mihir Bose and former pensions

Minister Baroness Ros Altmann.

Tomorrow's front pages,

starting with the Metro which leads

with Jeremy Corbyn's apparent call

for the Queen to apologise

for using an offshore fund

for investment purposes.

The Daily Express's top story

is what it calls the cover-up over

how foreign aid budgets

are drawn up.

The I focuses on the measures Apple

took advantage of to reduce its tax

burden.

The Telegraph features a warning

from one of Donald Trump's senior

advisers that a compromise with the

EU over Brexit may affect any future

trade deal with the US.

Finally, The Guardian also carries

the Paradise Papers leak. The paper

features a large picture of Lewis

Hamilton standing alongside a

private plane which the paper says

he avoided paying VAT on.

So, let's begin. Let's start with

the big story that's been running

the last couple of days. This is

from the Paradise Papers. Let's

start with the I. Revealed how Apple

avoided tax, billions. We are

focussing on Apple because of the

amount of money involved.

Huge sums.

The amount of tax they haven't paid

apparently is so enormous and

especially when you think that they

have been one of the biggest

taxpayers but their earnings have

been so enormous, the tax rate they

are estimated to be paying is

somewhere between 2% and 5%. Most of

us pay way over that on whatever we

earn. Which is nothing like what

Apple earn. Of course, they have

taken advantage of things that are

entirely legal. They've used one of

the tricks apparently which is

called the double Irish. They've got

earnings they make in the States and

they book them via Ireland and that

means they don't have to pay any tax

in the way that they would have to

if they declared it in the US, for

example. So, there are lots of ways

in which I think we need to have

some kind of further crackdown on

tax avoidance. The Government's

already been trying to tighten up on

tax avoidance and has collected

billions of pounds extra over the

last two or three years. But clearly

there are still major loopholes and

companies understandably are doing

their best to take advantage of

them.

I think the other problem is

that we have dom Indians, Crown dom

Indians which are -- -- dominions.

There is no corporation tax. We need

to look into that. Where we are

getting into is this is legal,

perfectly legal, but there is a

moral question of whether a company

like Apple which actually projects

itself, if you like, as a moral

leader, should be doing this. That

really is the question.

It's

interesting that you talk about the

offshore angle of this because of

course Apple has put its money in

Jersey. The Guardian, which focuses

more on the Lewis Hamilton

revelations. People looking at his

affairs took advantage of the rules

in the Isle of Man.

Yes, this is

where he has a jet which is leased

to an Isle of Man company and the

question there is, therefore, the

VAT is not paid on it. Now the VAT

is not paid on it because most of

the jet is supposed to be used for

official purposes. It's a question

of whether the Isle of Man, although

Lewis Hamilton is perfectly clear,

he does use it for private purposes,

but the question is, is the Isle of

Man doing - observing its own rules

properly and that's what HMRC is

going to look into. These are the

questions, if you have these tax

havens then the problem is how well

are they policed? For the tax havens

their selling point is come to us

and and you don't have to pay tax,

so why should they bother about

policing it?

Lewis Hamilton is

saying I left it to the

professionals, they manage affairs

for me. Of course if there's an

opportunity to avoid this tax and

it's £3. 3 million of VAT that was

refunded to him by the Isle of Man,

then that's what he pace them for.

The problem we have got is that the

Isle of Man may not be implementing

the rules.

That's exactly the point

The Guardian is making as well. It's

got a quote by a Lord Professor

saying no one seems to be enforcing

the laws that exist. Can I take you

both on to the front page of the

Metro which introduces the political

dimension in this story. It has

comments by Jeremy Corbyn, the

Labour leader on its front page. You

are shaking your head.

Yeah, I think

to make political capital out of

this and especially against the

Queen seems to me to be very, very

distasteful.

Is he singling out the

Queen, though, I don't think he did.

He said everybody.

She is included

in that group really. There is no

distinction. If he was saying we

have to tighten up and we must not

allow these things to happen, I

understand that. But the Queen in

particular voluntarily pays tax on

her earnings. The Metro has used her

picture on the front page as if

somehow she's done something

terribly wrong. Quite honestly, I

think this is really unfair. First

of all, the sums relative to what

the Queen has are not large. She

probably had no idea what the money

was invested in. The point is this

is entirely legal and she volunteers

to pay tax which she doesn't need to

pay.

Probably ill-advised to make

the investment they did. I agree,

Corbyn is basically saying this

money hadn't gone there, it would

have gone into schools, hospitals,

he is making a populist point. The

whole question is what has his party

or any party done it look at our tax

system? We have a very odd tax

system where we allow people who are

non-residents here not to pay tax. I

think people who live in this

country should be taxed on

everything they earn in this

country. And we should look at the

business of having offshore polices

-- places where you can put money

which is in a way controlled by the

Crown.

Yes, it is.

We need to look

at that.

They're British offshore

territories. If the British people

want the system to change, the

Government will need to change the

system. But to make out like

somebody is doing something terribly

wrong when it's not illegal, you

either make it illegal or why are

you criticising them in this way?

I

am going to move you both on to a

different story on the front page of

The Financial Times. Boris Johnson

and remarks he has made about a

British Iranian woman being held in

jail in Iran.

Yeah, this is a story

about a British Iranian woman being

accused of trying to topple the

Government. She claims she - she

denies it and she is in jail. Boris

Johnson a few days ago talking to a

committee in parliament and the lady

had come back in 2016 to visit this

country said she had come and, you

know, done some journalism teaching.

She has worked for journalistic

organisations. Actually she said she

had come to bring her children to

visit...

It was a private visit.

A

private visit. The Iranians have

used that to say you are denying

that you want to destabilise our

Government, look you have been

teaching jornlism, you are part of a

media conspiracy and they want

increase the charge. It raised the

question, doesn't Boris Johnson ever

consult anybody at the Foreign

Office as to what it is? He is the

Foreign Secretary. He is the man who

represents us. Surely before he goes

and says something in this - in

parliament, he should check what the

status is.

I suppose to be fair to

the Foreign Secretary he didn't say

she had been teaching journalism in

Iran.

Nevertheless, he should be

aware of how sensitive it is and how

that remark may be misinterpreted,

where a woman is impressed by the

Government, and they refuse to

believe that her defence she's in

the trying to topple that

Government.

She came into court and

said I was just here to introduce my

children to their grandparents. I

haven't anything to do with

propaganda or anything to do with

political action against the regime.

Four days after Boris Johnson said

she had been teaching people

journalism, she was summoned to

court again and she's now been

accused of having new evidence

against her, producing propaganda

and the fear is that she may

actually have her sentence

increased. This is really serious

stuff.

Let me take you now to the

front page of the Daily Telegraph

which leads with a Brexit story.

Don't let the EU dictate Brexit

warns the US.

Well, this seems to me

this is - the US Secretary visiting

this country, he seems to be

suggesting is that the US would

prefer a hard Brexit. If you come to

an arrangement as we leave which

has, as he puts it landmines,

doesn't specify what he has in mind,

presumably some sort of arrangement

where the transitional arrangement

carries on for a bit, he says that

will delay the US and the UK having

its own trade arrangements and he

seems to be sort of really saying we

should have off the cliff exit and

therefore, there will be a quick...

Helpful, unhelpful?

He seems to be

threatening the UK, if we dare to

leave the EU but still keep some of

its rules and regulations, we can't

expect to have a good trade deal

with the US. To be quite honest, I

really think that those remarks are

terribly unhelpful. We are in this

very delicate position of trying to

negotiate a good outcome for Brexit

and it may be that we have to keep

some of the EU's regulations, many

of which are designed to protect the

public and that might mean that we

can't have GM foods or clor innated

chicken even if the US wants to sell

it to us, that shouldn't be

something the US comes in and

dictates to us. It's up to our

negotiators.

Thank you very much.

That's it for The Papers tonight.

You can see the front pages of the

papers online on the BBC news

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If you miss the programme any

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the iPlayer. Thank you again. Bye.