They are one of the largest conduits for offshore tax havens. Until they and the other countries around the world, including the USA, make this a golden standard, we will not meet any of the “required” deadlines they put in place.

From a recent Guardian report, almost 40% of corporate investments channeled away from authorities and into tax havens travel through the UK or the Netherlands. The Netherlands was a conduit for 23% of corporate investments that ended in a tax haven. The UK accounted for 14%, ahead of Switzerland (6%), Singapore (2%) and Ireland (1%).

According to Dr Eelke Heemskerk, who led research in this area, “In the context of Brexit, where you have the UK threatening, unless they get a deal, to change their model to be attractive to companies who want to protect themselves from taxes, well, they are already doing it.”