William Hague warns immaturity about tax affairs could scare off good politicians

The former Tory leader called for a measured debate

Former Tory leader William Hague (Reuters)

William Hague has called for “maturity” in the debate about politicians’ tax affairs, arguing that MPs should not be expected to always have the “simplest possible personal finances”.

The former Conservative leader made his intervention after a week in which senior political figures released details of their tax arrangements on account of pressure relating to the Panama Papers leak.

Mr Hague said increased tax scrutiny of public figures was here to stay, but that it could potentially damage the diversity of Parliament.

“If Parliament consisted of people who had the simplest possible personal finances, perhaps all having come through the public sector with no questions of business ownership or dividends ... then you would have a very one dimensional Parliament,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“The consequence of greater transparency in tax, in medical records, whatever else it may be among leaders, is that there has to be a maturity in the public debate about those things and a recognition that the circumstances and habits of people who are effective leaders will vary greatly.”

Winston Churchill's tax affairs "would have been more difficult to defend in public than Prime Minister David Cameron's", he said of the man widely lauded as the UK's best leader.

And characters such as William Pitt the Younger - whose biography he wrote - had "chaotic personal finances" but were "brilliant at handling the nation's finances".

"Personal circumstances are not necessarily a good guide to how good they will be as a prime minister, a chancellor or anything else," he said.

Other Tories were more indelicate than the former Foreign Secretary in making similar points.

On Monday former international development minister Alan Duncan told MPs that people with simple tax affairs might be “low achievers” and unsuitable to be MPs.

“Shouldn’t the Prime Minister’s critics just snap out of their synthetic indignation and admit their real point is they just hate anyone who’s got a hint of wealth in their life?” he argued in a debate following David Cameron’s statement.

“We risk having a House of Commons stuffed full of low achievers who hate enterprise, hate people who look after their own families and know absolutely nothing about the outside world.”

David Cameron has been criticised for his tax affairs (PA)

Labour and SNP MPs were quick to criticise Mr Duncan, with former leadership candidate Liz Kendall tweeting that his comments were “obnoxious”.

“It saddens me that he seems to suggest if you weren’t a millionaire you were a low achiever,” said Labour MP Caroline Flint.

David Cameron yesterday ruled out forcing MPs to disclose their tax affairs and said the new scrutiny should only apply to senior politicians.

Yesterday George Osborne and Jeremy Corbyn released details of their tax affairs, with Mr Corbyn providing a photocopy of his tax return and the Chancellor providing a short summary from his accountants.

The Prime Minister released a summary of his tax arrangements going back a number of years over the weekend. He came in for criticism after it emerged he had had £30,000 shares in an off-shore fund set up by his father in the Bahamas and had received a gift of £200,000 from his mother which could have avoided inheritance tax.

Mr Cameron said yesterday: “There have been some deeply hurtful and profoundly untrue allegations made against my father.

“This investment fund was set off overseas in the first place because it was going to be trading predominantly in dollar securities.”

Mr Corbyn however said the PM had properly failed to account for his affairs.