Edward Snowden urges British public to rise up and force David Cameron to resign over offshore fund
The British Prime Minister has admitted benefitting from an offshore trust
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Your support makes all the difference.Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden has put further pressure on David Cameron following the release of the Panama Papers by urging the British public to force his resignation.
Mr Cameron faced a difficult week of questions before he admitted on Thursday to profiting from the sale of shares in an offshore fund.
Mr Snowden, who resides in Russia – whose leadership has been linked with the Panama Papers revelations – sought to ratchet up the pressure on the PM on social media.
Referring to growing critcism of David Cameron's admissions, Mr Snowden stated “the next 24 hours could change Britain”.
Mr Snowden also said it was “up to the British public” if Mr Cameron resigned.
He said that in Iceland, where the Prime Minister did resign, “ten per cent of all voters were in the streets within 24 hours, and for less [revelations].”
However, with the population of Iceland just 323,002 people and the population of Great Britain significantly more at 64.1 million people, the chances of ten per cent of the UK electorate going to the streets to demand Mr Cameron’s resignation might seem unlikely.
Mr Snowden also made posts highlighting the #resigncameron trend on British social media.
He also seemed to imply that a "strategy" was required to force the resignation of the Prime Minister.
He had previously mocked Mr Cameron for his comments, made earlier in the week, in which he said his financial affairs were a “private” matter.
The Prime Minister admitted he had profited from selling shares he owned in the offshore Blairmore Investment Trust, set up by his father, Ian Cameron, and run from the Bahamas.
Mr Cameron sold the shares for £31,500 before entering office in 2010. He and his wife Samantha Cameron made a £19,000 profit.
Despite paying income tax on the dividends there was no capital gains to pay on the sale as it was below the then tax threshold for Capital Gains Tax.
Mr Cameron also came under criticism after he said of his father’s £300,000 inheritance that he cannot “point to every source of the money.”
In the past, the Prime Minister has spoken strongly against tax avoidance and called it “morally wrong.”
Tax avoidance, often facilitated by the use of overseas companies to avoid paying taxes, is not illegal like tax evasion but is considered by many to be immoral.
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