LONDON: Lord Swraj Paul, NRI industrialist based here, has sharply attacked Prime Minister David Cameron over corruption in Britain after he figured in an exchange in parliament over Swiss bank accounts of British residents.
Chairman of the Caparo Group of Industries, Paul is among the wealthy who legally hold accounts in HSBC Bank in Switzerland. He has maintained that all his bank accounts are legitimate.
The issue of Swiss bank accounts figured in the House of Commons yesterday over which there were sharp exchanges between Cameron and Labor leader Ed Miliband who said that those who held Swiss bank accounts included seven persons who had donated nearly five million pounds to the ruling Conservative Party.
Cameron retorted by saying that the list included Labor donor Lord Paul who had funded former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s election campaign. Paul is said to have donated five million pounds (500,000 pounds) to the Labor Party.
Miliband said that none of those who held the Swiss accounts had given a penny to the Labor Party and attacked Cameron as a “dodgy Prime Minister surrounded by dodgy donors”.
Responding to the proceedings in the Commons, Paul said in a statement later that when Cameron “is in a hole, he has the habit of giving sound bytes instead of answering questions put to him.”
He had made donations to the Labor Party during 1993- 2009 and these had come from his company Caparo in whose balance sheets the donations had been recorded, he said.
Paul told reporters that everybody knew that he has donated to the Labor Party till he was a member. He had left the party in 2010 and was since then a “cross-bencher” i.e not attached to any party.
Attacking Cameron, Paul said that instead of finding fault of others, he “should start finding it for himself”.
During his time as Prime Minister, the country has “gone higher” in corruption, he added.
Paul also praised Brown, saying he was one of the finest and most honest Prime Ministers Britain has had.–PTI
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