Mortgage News
Barclays hit by protests over tax avoidance
Over 35 Barclays branches were picketed over the weekend as protesters vented anger the financial giant paid just 1% in UK corporation tax in 2009, after making a record £11.6bn profit.
Several branches were closed to the public as protesters staged peaceful sit-ins, impromptu reading groups and creches in dozens of cities and towns across Britain, including Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool and Lewes, the Guardian reports.
Barclays has been accused of occupying a “parallel universe” following the disclosure it paid just £113m of corporation tax on its £11.6bn of annual profits; a rate amounting to just 1%.
Supporters of UK Uncut, the group which organised the protests, said the plan was not to shut the banks down but to “open them up”.
Ruth Griffiths, 36, a UK Uncut supporter, said: “We are transforming the banks into schools, leisure centres, and libraries and forests, because it’s society that’s too big to fail, not a broken banking system.”
Most of the gathered volunteers said people were angry at Barclays’ chief executive, Bob Diamond, who said the time for banks to apologise was over.
Why new-build property investment is appealing to a new generation of landlords
Sponsored by BM Solutions
Max Lawson, a spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax Campaign, said: “This is proof that banks live in a parallel universe to the rest of us – paying billions in bonuses and unhampered by the inconvenience of paying tax.”