David Cameron and the Tories have links to the very top of Google going back decades.
The Prime Minister has enjoyed a special relationship with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who made billions making the business into a global powerhouse.
For years Mr Schmidt was on Mr Cameron’s business advisory board, which is used as a ‘sounding board’ on business matters, but the Google executive left in July.
The billionaire has reportedly also offered Mr Cameron on economic policy.
The links do not end there because Steve Hilton, once the Prime Minister’s closest political adviser, is married to Rachel Whetstone, who was vice-president of global communications at Google until last year before she moved to Uber.
Rachel Whetstone is a former No 10 aide and was Michael Howard’s director of communications when he was Tory leader and Mr Cameron is godfather to her younger son.
Mr Hilton was godfather to Ivan Cameron, the late eldest child of David and Samantha.m
… In 2006, Mr Cameron travelled from visiting Google in Silicon Valley to Bournemouth to address the Conservative Party conference.
Then in 2010 when Cameron announced a review of Britain’s intellectual property laws as the founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain’.
In 2012 it emerged that Tory ministers held meetings with Google an average of once a month. Official records show that David Cameron met Google executives three times and Chancellor George Osborne four times.
Google has held five meetings with the UK government over the past two years to discuss launching driverless cars in Britain.
It is not just a case of former government policy staff exiting through Westminster’s ‘revolving door’ to Google – it works the other way too.
Tim Chatwin was Mr Cameron’s head of strategic communications and had worked closely with Mr Hilton since the start of the Cameron modernisation project. He joined Google after the 2012 Tory conference.
Amy Fisher was once Google’s PR chief for European affairs and later bagged a job advising then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.
Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell today wrote to George Osborne demanding more information on Google’s tax bill.
In his letter he said that there are eight questions he must answer:
Firstly, please can you clarify exactly when you were first made aware of the details of the deal with Google? Did you (or any other Treasury Minister) personally sign it off, and were other Ministers involved in the settlement?
What discussions, if any, did you or members of your private office have with HMRC and with Google representatives about the deal?
Did HM Treasury and HMRC discuss details of the deal with Number 10 before the announcement was made?
What is HMRC’s understanding of the effective tax rate faced by Google over the past 10 years as a result of this settlement?
Are you confident that this deal will not undermine international co-operation on tax avoidance, such as the OECD base erosion and profit shifting scheme?
Can you clarify whether Google is changing the company structures that enabled this avoidance to take place over the past decade?
What concerns, if any, do you have that this agreement creates a precedent for future deals with other large technology corporations?
To help ensure HMRC is best placed to address complex issues like this will you now halt the programme of HMRC staffing cuts?
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