Carr ‘sorry’ for tax move as Cameron defends comments

David Cameron defended wading into the row over Jimmy Carr’s tax affairs after the comedian admitted he had made a “terrible error of judgment”.

But the British prime minister declined to criticise Take That singer Gary Barlow, who has also been accused of using a complex scheme to avoid paying millions of pounds to HM Revenue & Customs.

Carr bowed to pressure yesterday by releasing a statement apologising for his actions.

“I appreciate as a comedian, people will expect me to ‘make light’ of this situation, but I’m not going to in this statement as this is obviously a serious matter,” he said.

“I met with a financial adviser and he said to me ‘Do you want to pay less tax? It’s totally legal’. I said ‘yes’.

“I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgment.

“Although I’ve been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC, I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly. Apologies to everyone.”

Cameron had joined a chorus of criticism of the comedian, whose tax arrangements were disclosed in The Times on Tuesday.

It has been alleged that Take That invested at least £26m (€32.3m) in a scheme run by Icebreaker Management Services.

Cameron said: “In terms of people’s tax affairs, of course people can plan their tax affairs, put money into their pension and that can have an effect on your tax bill and the rest of it. That is sensible and reasonable. But as the chancellor of the exchequer said, some aggressive anti-avoidance schemes that may not be illegal are morally questionable.”