By Lamiat Sabin
Progressive
parties and movements across Europe should unite after Brexit to stamp out tax
dodging and fight to end austerity, Jeremy Corbyn said on Friday in Madrid. The
Labour leader told the Party of European Socialists meeting that together they
could also slow down climate change and halt the growth of the far right.
He
warned that tax-avoiding corporations could take advantage of any break in
co-operation across borders, and said that European countries working together
was vital to stopping such “daylight robbery” of multinational firms not paying
enough tax. Mr Corbyn referred to reports that Britain’s richest man Jim
Ratcliffe, CEO of chemicals group Ineos, is set to reduce his tax bill after
moving to Monaco, and James Dyson deciding to move his business base to
Singapore. He told fellow party leaders: “None of us can allow Britain’s exit
from the European Union to be exploited by the whims of big business and the
super-rich.”
Mr
Corbyn said: “To build a new economic and environmental consensus, where wealth
and power is shared across our communities, not hoarded by the 1 per cent, and
our planet’s diversity is protected, progressive and popular forces in all
countries need to work together. “Companies who shift their accounting
operations back and forth across borders to minimise their tax bills are
carrying out daylight robbery. “By failing to crack down on aggressive tax
avoidance, Theresa May is allowing the British public to be ripped off and
exposing the kind of Brexit she and her party want to deliver. “She should not
stand by as Jim Ratcliffe, who has lobbied against measures to tackle climate
change, is reportedly preparing to squirrel away billions in Monaco.”
Mr
Corbyn also held private meetings with prime ministers and party leaders to lay
out Labour’s alternative Brexit plan, which he advocated as credible and
negotiatiable with the EU. This followed meetings in Brussels on Thursday —
alongside shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, shadow attorney general
Shami Chakrabarti and shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey — to put
forward Labour’s case for membership of a customs union and alignment with the
single market.
The
European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt had said he had “open
and constructive” talks with Mr Corbyn with a “consensus that a reckless
no-deal should be off the table.” He restated the EU Parliament’s plea for a
“broad majority” to be found for a deal at Westminster through a cross-party
approach.
Back
in London shadow chancellor John McDonnell claimed the party was “moving
closer” to support for a second referendum on EU membership.
Ms
May will be heading to Egypt for the first ever EU-Arab summit, in Sharm
el-Sheikh, where she hopes to secure a breakthrough on the Brexit impasse over
the Irish border backstop days before another crunch Commons vote on her plans.
But an EU official ruled out any “deal in the desert,” because not all the EU
member states will be there. (IPA
Service)
Courtesy: Morning Star
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