Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the calls for urgent action on rising global inequality made by Oxfam and others.

Income inequality is now lower than when this Government came into office. Domestically we have invested heavily in HMRC to ensure that the wealthy pay the tax which they owe. Overall, the richest will pay more in tax this Parliament than under the previous Government’s plans and last year the top 1% of income taxpayers paid over 28% of income tax revenue, a higher proportion than at any time under the previous Government.

Internationally, we have led efforts through the G20 and OECD to reform the international tax rules to tackle the issue of multinationals artificially shifting their profits to avoid paying tax. And since 2013, we have been the first G7 country to meet the UN commitment to spending 0.7% of GNI on development aid.