Sections of the British public have slammed their local media outlets for ignoring the fact Prime Minister David Cameron’s father was caught up in a massive data leak involving possible tax evasion.
A huge leak of more than 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm saw the British media jump to accuse President Vladimir Putin of corruption, despite the Russian president not being named in any of the papers.
Putin’s photo popped up all over the British press. This has not been lost on people in the UK, who were scathing that so little attention was being paid to allegations that the prime minister’s father had been caught up in the alleged tax evasion scandal.
“Cameron's dad [is] directly involved but [of] course our 'free press' will focus solely on the friend of an acquaintance of Putin,” Twitter user Luke Maddison wrote in reply to an article published by Sky News.
The Guardian newspaper broke the story in the UK and led with the headline: “The secret $2bn trail of deals that lead all the way to Putin,” complete with a picture of the Russian president.
The irony is the Guardian put a story on David Cameron's crusade against tax havens right next to the article on Vladimir Putin, without even mentioning the fact that the leak revealed information about the PM's father.
One Twitter user said it was “tiresome” that Putin was being linked with everything, while main stream media was ignoring that “Cameron has been linked.”
Another Twitter user accused the BBC of being the “British Brainwashing Channel” for not mentioning David Cameron, while the person wondered whether this was “against national interest?”
The tenuous link to Putin was through a personal acquaintance and the accusations made against the Russian president were noted by members of the public.
“You state that Putin isn't listed yet you proceed to use his photo. Western anti-Putin propaganda machinery in full swing!” Mothibi Phosa II said, in reply to a Business Insider article on the topic.
Cameron has said on many occasions that he wants to tackle money laundering and make sure no dirty money enters the UK.
“I want Britain to be the most open country in the world for investment. But I want to ensure that all this money is clean money,” he said in July.
READ MORE: Tory vow to tackle money laundering in UK rubbished by experts
“There is no place for dirty money in Britain. Indeed, there should be no place for dirty money anywhere.”
The Independent and the Guardian did finally get around to publishing articles about Cameron’s father and senior Tories having offshore accounts to hide their wealth.
Cameron’s spokeswoman refused to comment on whether the UK prime minister’s family had invested money in offshore funds, which had been set up by his father, adding that this was a “private matter.”