Pandora Papers: How London became a financial hub for Gulf rulers and the super-rich

Middle East Eye: Since leaving the European Union, the British government has looked to boost its image at home and abroad with a series of public relations exercises, including the "Britain is Great" advertising campaign, designed to "promote British creativity and innovation to foreign investors".

What goes unsaid is the great talent the United Kingdom has developed since the end of World War Two, of serving as a money laundering hub, tax haven and facilitator of global finance.

It is a position that Britain and its satelites have consolidated since the country's decline following the messy retreat from empire. 

The foundations of the structures used by political elites and the super-rich in the Pandora Papers to evade taxes and scrutiny were however formed much earlier, during the British empire itself, and involved the Middle East.

In 1876, British courts ruled that a company should be taxed only in the country where the company is controlled, enabling a distinction between a company’s registration and where it operates.

This was the start of dual-taxation agreements, where a company essentially chose where it is taxed, which was invariably where tax was lower.

It was a case involving the Egyptian Delta Land and Investment Company that first used this loophole, which some have argued “made Britain a tax haven”. In 1929, a court ruled that the company, which was registered in the UK and had moved its board to Egypt, would not pay tax in the UK.

Britain’s own form of banking secrecy was also developed during empire - the trust fund, where the beneficial owner (the actual owner of an asset) is not publicly declared.

“Trusts are legacies of British colonialism, existing in many forms in former colonies, either enacted during imperial rule or after, when the UK had influence in how legislation and laws were developed,” says Rachel Etter-Phoya, senior researcher at the UK-based Tax Justice Network (TJN).

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