Take That star Gary Barlow is facing calls to hand back his OBE over claims he invested in a tax avoidance scheme.

The UK arm of internet shopping giant Amazon paid corporation tax of less than £10m last year despite generating sales of £4.3 billion.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt will meet David Cameron next week, just days after the internet giant was mauled by a Commons committee over its tax affairs.

Its corporate motto may be “Don’t be evil” but Google was accused of being devious, calculating, and unethical as British MPs put pressure on its tax regime.

Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has defended the internet giant’s tax affairs in Britain, saying the firm was playing a key role in the UK’s high-tech growth.

The public spending watchdog is to investigate BBC severance packages after it emerged almost 200 senior managers received pay-offs of more than £100,000 (€122,137) each in the past three years.

Starbucks, Google and Amazon were accused of “immorally” minimising their UK tax bills in a damning report by a spending watchdog today.

A BBC trustee who was involved in the decision to give George Entwistle a £450,000 (€560,000) payoff for resigning as director general insisted today he still believes it was the right thing to do.

Starbucks chief Troy Alstead was yesterday told his claims that the coffee chain continually made a loss in Britain “just doesn’t ring true”.

Up to 50,000 migrants may have used flaws in the student visa system to come to the UK for work in its first year, the country's public spending watchdog said today.

Up to 181,000 migrants who should have gone home over the past two years alone could still be in the UK illegally, figures showed today.

Labour veteran Margaret Hodge was victorious today in her battle with the leader of the British National Party.

The historic Abbey Road studios, which played their part in famed recordings from Elgar to The Beatles, were today given listed building status.

Sportswear giants Adidas are set to be announced as the latest sponsors of London 2012 this week.

THE far-right British National Party (BNP) said it had more than doubled its representation on councils in England after yesterday’s local elections.

BRITAIN’S mainstream politicians are increasingly concerned that the far-right British National Party could be heading for an electoral breakthrough.

Union leaders in the UK tonight called for a cut in British interest rates and help for manufacturers after unemployment jumped by over 100,000 to reach the highest level in three years.

The Irish publisher whose wife was involved in an affair with British home secretary David Blunkett said yesterday that she would testify before an inquiry into claims that Blunkett fast-tracked a residency application for her nanny.

GUILT-RIDDEN parents who agonise about sending their children to nursery should take heart from new research showing pre-school pupils perform better at primary school, according to Britain’s children’s minister Margaret Hodge.

A Fathers 4 Justice campaigner handcuffed himself to a British government minister at a family law conference in Manchester today, police said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair suffered the embarrassment of a second Labour backbench rebellion in less than 24 hours as a bid to ban smacking failed in the House of Commons tonight.

Britain has become the latest nation to suspend adoptions of Cambodian children by its citizens because of concerns over illegal selling of babies and other abuses.

HUNDREDS of family court cases involving children taken into care on the basis of expert evidence that they were at risk of harm could be overturned, British Children’s Minister Margaret Hodge said yesterday.

Tony Blair is the least trustworthy politician in Britain, a new survey found today.