UPDATE: MPs demand answers from HMRC following Abramovich investigation

MPs have demanded HMRC puts an end to the vast sums of public money being lost to offshore tax avoidance, which they say the agency has massively underestimated.

In a letter sent on Wednesday, the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it has previously reported concerns about HMRC’s pursuit of offshore wealth. “Over the last week, with the publication of several troubling press reports, our concern about these issues has deepened,” it said.

It follows last week’s revelations by TBIJ that Roman Abramovich may owe £1bn in UK tax and fines from a sprawling offshore hedge fund operation.

The letter, sent to to HMRC chief Jim Harra and signed by PAC chair Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, asked for a response by 21 February. It raised the prospect of a public evidence session if the answers are unsatisfactory.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Joe Powell tabled a debate on the overseas territories and expressed his concern that “the most notorious and brazen enablers of illicit finance and money laundering are operating as part of the UK family.”

Labour MP Phil Brickell railed against so-called secrecy jurisdictions. “I​t’s simply unacceptable – indeed morally indefensible – that we find ourselves in a situation where a number of British Overseas Territories continue to incorporate entities hiding behind the corporate veil of secrecy, all the while our constituents pay their taxes in good order,” he said.