LAST week’s leak of the Panama papers shows how powerless and unwilling the UK government is to bring a halt to the extreme practices used by some of the world’s richest people and multinationals to avoid paying their fair share of tax.

To tackle this problem, we need more international co-operation and the most obvious way to do this is to remain in Europe.

Having ordered Starbucks to repay €30million, the EU’s ongoing investigations into over €7bn of unpaid taxes from Apple do a lot to justify the EU’s position as a world leader in the global fight against tax avoidance.

On Tuesday, the EU also presented its new proposals for clamping down on tax avoidance which will force large multinationals operating in the EU to publicly disclose their earnings and tax bills.

These are crucial steps towards increasing transparency and information-sharing between countries and preventing companies from generating profits in one country and paying tax in another.

In the run up to June 23, we should remember that we can achieve so much more in the world if we work with our European partners and take a lead in the EU.

Richard F Grant

Burley