Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar notes Ms Hassan Nahon’s response to the Government statement contradicting her on her irresponsible statements setting out her desire to close down the provision of well regulated financial services in Gibraltar.
The fact is that Ms Hassan Nahon has repeatedly spoken and written about the provision of financial services from Gibraltar in terms designed to bury the finance centre, not to praise it.
Ms Hassan Nahon has freely chosen to specifically refer to the financial services industry Gibraltar as a ‘morally bankrupt industry’[1]. She cannot get away from that now because she is clearly embarrassed at having been called out on her unsustainable position.
Ms Hassan Nahon has freely chosen to specifically adopt incorrect and pernicious terminology alleging that the financial services industry in Gibraltar is involved in ‘fiscal dumping’ and ‘opaque finances’[2].
Whether Ms Hassan Nahon likes it or not, this is exactly the same language used by our political enemies to describe our well regulated financial services sector. In fact, it was the choice of phrase employed repeatedly by former Spanish Foreign Minister Margallo in his ultimately defeated challenge to the Gibraltar Income Tax Act 2010[3].
Having defeated the challenge by Spain to our tax laws as promoting ‘fiscal dumping’, Ms Hassan Nahon now adopts EXACTLY THE SAME description chosen by Snr Margallo to describe our tax laws, using that pernicious and incorrect terminology.
These statements from Ms Hassan Nahon are, further, coupled with remarks explicitly stating that the Gibraltar economy has to be subject to profound structural changes away from the financial services industry. It is therefore Ms Hassan Nahon who has said that she will dismantle the Gibraltar Finance Centre because, in her own words, it is a ‘morally bankrupt industry’.
Those references are not invented by the Government. All the Government has done is highlight that these are the words used in statements made by her in the Gibraltar Parliament in the course of a Budget Debate and in her subsequent remarks, and that they lead to her policy of dismantling the financial services industry in Gibraltar, with the huge consequent loss of jobs in the finance centre, online gaming etc. The consequent loss of revenue to public coffers would equally affect public sector jobs, the ability to provide public services across the board etc.
Ms Hassan Nahon’s reaction to the Government’s factual statement setting out no more and no less than her own words, suggests that she is now, happily, once again, in full reverse gear and u-turning as quickly as possible. This is characteristic also of how Ms Hassan Nahon does politics, saying different and contradicting things on different days about any matter, policy or person.
ENDS
[1] Ms Nahon has said that Gibraltar’s financial services sector, “… is a morally bankrupt industry with inherent risks attached to it.” See: https://twitter.com/MHassanNahon/status/1503717118663139330?s=20&t=2GSoH2pN4qmbqnafl5iCSQ
[2] Marlene Hassan Nahon MP, Budget Speech, 23rd July 2021: https://www.parliament.gi/uploads/contents/hansard/hansard_2021/friday_23rd_july_2021_afternoon_session.pdf
“… we have clear shortcomings when it comes to our anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financial controls… My party, Together Gibraltar, and I have said many times that Gibraltar needs profound structural changes, … that it had to move away from fiscal dumping and opaque fiances because sooner or later it was clear that these industries would come into direct conflict with an evolving world, a world in which public coffers cannot afford any more tax avoidance…”
[3] https://elpais.com/politica/2012/06/10/actualidad/1339355692_454816.html
