On Tuesday February 17th 4.30pm Liverpool Green Party will be demonstrating with placards at HSBC’s busy Lord Street branch. The demonstration has been organized by the St. Michael’s ward councilor Tome Crone. It comes days after the scale of HSBC’s involvement in illegal tax evasion came to light. Despite the bank paying for full page adverts apologizing for the affair in four Sunday papers yesterday the public remain horrified to know that HSBC helped others to rob the public purse.
Cllr Tom Crone said
“This is the latest chapter in a sorry tale of British banking which stretches back for at least eight years. All the major banks have been implicated in financial scandals that have had a catastrophic effect on our economy. This includes the crash of 2008 that resulted in current austerity policies. Sure Start Centres, Libraries and the NHS are being hammered by spending cuts whilst taxes worth billions remain uncollected. We jail people for not paying their TV license fee, yet bankers break the law and think saying sorry will make it alright.
Labour and Conservatives blame each other for the scandal and claim they will take action. HSBC’s former boss Stephen Green was chair of HSBC at the time its Swiss arm acted unlawfully. He later served in David Cameron’s Government as Minister of State for Trade and Investment. The Labour Government was in office at the time of the wrongdoing in 2008. Despite many years in power, both parties have failed the public. The UK needs an alternative party who they can trust to challenge the banks. The Green Party has a clear commitment to challenge tax evasion, which is illegal, and tax avoidance which is legal but arguably undesirable in a country that values it’s public services.’
Last year the Green Party returned a £7,000 donation from a wealthy businessman who is not registered for tax in the UK. The donation from an ex-Labour donor who owns property in the UK and is registered to vote here was legal under electoral law. The Green Party did not accept the donations because the donor did not pay full UK taxes.