Papers Reveal Blairs' £300k Tax Saving On £6.5m Property Deal

Leaked documents reveal Tony and Cherie Blair saved more than £300,000 in stamp duty by buying a property via an offshore company.

- Sarah O’Grady

The former Prime Minister and his barrister wife became the owners of a £6.5million office building in 2017 by acquiring a British Virgin Island firm controlled by the family of HE Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani, a minister of the King of Bahrain.

And the Queen’s Crown Estate has launched an internal review over a £67million London property it seems to have bought from Azerbaijan’s multimillionaire ruling family – which has repeatedly been accused of corruption.

The deals are revealed in the latest so-called Pandora Papers – a trove of leaked files from offshore companies that expose tax haven secrecy.

They provide a rare window into the hidden world of offshore finance, casting light on the financial secrets of some of the world’s richest people.

They allegedly reveal Alzayani as the secret shareholder of another offshore firm that has spent more than £60million buying UK commercial property over the past nine years, including the Marylebone address sold to the Blairs.

Loopholes