Miliband wrote to the jurisdictions, including a number of Bitish Overseas Territories, threatening them with sanctions if they fail to create a public register detailing the true owners of companies operating in their territory.
He has written to Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar and Montserrat
Geoff Cook, chief executive at Jersey Finance, said he believed Labour’s policy would be of “dubious value”.
He said it would be bypassed by criminals and those who misuse companies to launder money, and would be utilised for tax evasion purposes.
“Jersey adheres to current international standards and is already a global leader in capturing and exchanging such information through agreements between regulators and fiscal authorities,” he added.
As an alternative, he suggested the more “prudent approach” of ensuring that the true owners of businesses are known and can be exchanged between governments without “undue difficulty”. This was suggested at the last meeting of the G20 nations.
Fabien Picardo, chief minister of Gibraltar, said it was “patently false” of Miliband to say that Gibraltar has hidden information about companies from tax authorities.
He added that the Labour leader was “simply falling for gimmicky and headline grabbing initiatives”.
Gavin St Pier, minister for treasury & resources in Guernsey, said previous meetings with Labour had indicated a “greater level of understanding” about the island’s tax transparency than is evident in his letter.
“Guernsey is also one of the very few jurisdictions in the world that regulates trusts and corporate service providers in order to provide timely and robust beneficial ownership information,” he added
‘Not fit for office’
According to The Financial Times, Bermuda’s premier, Michael Dunkley, said: “We would also remind Mr Milliband of Bermuda’s strategic economic contribution to the UK, which includes direct and indirect employment in the UK of 100,000 people, as well as our role as a global hub for the reinsurance and insurance industries.”
Miliband said that, under a Labour Government, Overseas Territories would have six months to complete a list of offshore companies for public access.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, chancellor George Osborne said the proposals would lead to the UK falling out with foreign governments such as the US, adding that the approach shows that Miliband is “not fit for office”.
“The new British prime minister would turn up in Washington and say ‘I am blacklisting your country’? I think he makes it up as he goes along,” he added.
Last year, prime minister David Cameron wrote a letter to overseas territories about the importance of beneficial ownership, praising the jurisdictions’ developments in transparency but emphasising the general importance of publically accessible central registers.
This came after he requested in 2013 that offshore jurisdictions introduce a public register of companies’ ultimate owners.
