Tax clampdown 'unrealistic' says Chief Minister

Vast sums aren't hidden in Crown dependencies

The Chief Minister says a tax clampdown by the UK chancellor is 'unrealistic'.

Allan Bell made the comments during a trip to London for today’s (Friday) British Irish Council summit.

He’s predicted George Osborne will struggle to raise the additional £5 billion a year - identified as a new target in the UK Government’s Autumn Statement - by clamping down further on tax avoidance and evasion.

Speaking to the International Adviser website, Mr Bell said there’d already been too many ‘headline grabbing figures’ cited by the chancellor, and others, which had not delivered the amounts they said they would collect.

He added there are not hundreds of millions of pounds squirrelled away in the crown dependencies.