Jon Ashworth, the Shadow Minister without Portfolio, has attacked Island firm Heritage Oil, which in 2010 moved its company registration at short notice from the Bahamas to Mauritius to avoid capital gains tax when it sold its 50 per cent share in oil fields in the African nation.
Details of the transaction, which is subject to an ongoing tax dispute between Heritage and the Ugandan government, were revealed last month as part of the ‘Panama Papers’ data leak from the records of law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Speaking on Tuesday during a debate about a global anti-corruption summit taking place in London next week, Mr Ashworth said that ‘chronic corruption’ was siphoning billions of pounds from Africa.
