Local MP Stephen McPartland and the Rt. Rev Paul Bayes, Bishop of Hertford, welcomed the Christian Aid Tax Justice bus as it stopped at Stevenage town square as part of a tour to highlight the injustice of global tax dodging.

Stephen said, “I am very happy to be here supporting the campaign for tax justice. Tax dodging hurts everybody and I fully support more transparency.”

Global tax dodging robs countries of the taxes owed to them: money that could be spent on essential services such as health, education and welfare; and costs the UK an estimated £35 billion a year at a time of austerity and Government cuts. The campaign is pushing for a series of measures to requirecompanies to report on the profits that they make and the taxes that they pay in every country in which they operate and for tax havens to share information automatically with other countries about the money flowing through them.