Google back tax: just £130m to sweeten the deal

With the the prime minister otherwise engaged, the defence of HMRC's 'sweetheart deal' was left to a delighted treasury minister

When George Osborne typed "How much tax should I pay?" into Google, only one answer appeared: "Absolutely nothing for 10 years and then only 130m if you twist my arm." Having entered the same question into a different search engine and come up with a figure roughly 10 times higher, John McDonnell asked the chancellor to explain to the House of Commons why he reckoned the deal HMRC had reached with Google was such "a major success".

Osborne checked his diary. "What a pity," he declared. "I've only just this minute arranged to meet Bill Gates in Liverpool so I'll have to pass. So I guess you'll have to make do with one of my sidekicks." David Gauke, financial secretary to the Treasury, looked less than thrilled at having been handed this hospital pass. When the prime minister has gone out of his way not to hail the Google deal as a massive success and the mayor of London has described it as derisory, you know you are in for a bad afternoon.