Tory grandee Lord Fink on tax evasion: 'Everybody does it'
Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Fink in political hot water over tax avoidance claims
Lord Fink, the former UK Conservative Party treasurer and leading party donor, has said tax avoidance is so widespread in Britain that "everyone does it", in a potential embarrassment for Prime Minister David Cameron.
The peer - a multimillionaire former hedge fund manager turned philanthropist - also admitted that he himself took "vanilla" tax avoidance measures, including transferring shares into family trusts while he worked in Switzerland.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Fink said: "The expression 'tax avoidance' is so wide that everyone does tax avoidance at some level."
On Wednesday, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband used parliamentary privilege to condemn "the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink".
That prompted an initial threat of legal action from Fink.
On his war of words with the Labour party leader, Fink said: "I didn't object to his use of the word 'tax avoidance'. Because you are right: tax avoidance, everyone does it."
Fink had threatened on Wednesday to sue Miliband if he repeated his remarks, and his aides said the Labour leader was intent on doing so. But the day after, Fink indicated that he did not want to take on legal action.