British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is struggling with the aftermath of resignation of LibDem minister David Laws, promised to make his government more transparent and said he would rebuild trust in politics.
Mr Cameron was hit by accusations against Mr Laws’ successor, chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander, that he had avoided paying capital gains tax after selling an apartment in London in 2007.
Answering accusations made by the Daily Telegraph, which had also revealed the details about expenses claims made by Mr Laws, Mr Alexander said capital gains tax was not payable on the sale of the apartment. Struggling to minimise the effect of Mr Laws’ resignation and the revelations about Mr Alexander’s personal fiancés over the coalition government, Mr Cameron said he would allow people to hold ministers and public services to account. Mr Cameron said he would “rip off the cloak of secrecy” surrounding government information. “If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since doing this job, it’s how all the information about government; the money it spends, where it spends it, the results it achieves; how so much of it is locked away in a vault marked sort of private for the eyes of ministers and officials only,” Mr Cameron said.