Asking Rishi Sunak to publish his tax returns is one thing, but where do we draw the line?

Either everyone should publish their tax returns, as in Norway, or no one, writes John Rentoul

Anonymous ministers have been quoted saying that the only way for Rishi Sunak to deal with the furore over his financial interests would be for him and his wife Akshata Murty to publish their tax returns (PA)

Boris Johnson led the way among British politicians in tax transparency, unlikely though it may seem. It all started with an argument in a lift with Ken Livingstone after a mayoral hustings on LBC in 2012, when Johnson was up for re-election. The mayor of London, red in the face, called Livingstone an effing liar for suggesting on air that Johnson avoided tax by being paid through a company.

Livingstone, on the defensive when a caller accused him of hypocrisy for being paid through a company, said that Johnson did the same: “We both had media earnings. We both put them through a company. You have to pay tax on the money you take out”.

The next day, Jenny Jones, the Green candidate, published her tax return and suggested in a Newsnight debate that the other candidates should do so too. Johnson surprisingly agreed, revealing £900,000 in income from freelance journalism over the previous four years. But he wasn’t paid through a company, whereas Livingstone, then forced to publish his tax return, revealed that by funnelling his freelance earnings through a company, paid tax at a lower rate “than a City Hall cleaner”, according to the Conservatives. The Tories won the argument and Johnson won the election.