Jeremy Corbyn today made an impassioned plea for governments to tackle the “global scandal” of tax avoidance.
He called out the Tories for their failure to act saying: “Our government has played a central role in enabling the corruption that undermines democracy, and violates human rights.”
The Labour leader highlighted the estimated 100 billion dollars a year lost to developing countries from corporate tax avoidance and $1 trillion dollars a year are sucked out of the Global South through illicit financial flows.
Speaking at the UN in Geneva, Corbyn he warned the “dominant global economic system is broken” and that it has produced a world where a wealthy few control 90 percent of global resources, of growing insecurity and grotesque levels of inequality within and between nations.”
But he said the “crisis” presents an opportunity to do things differently saying Labour would work with tax authorities in developing countries, as Zambia has with NORAD, the Norwegian aid agency, to help them stop the looting.
Speaking ahead of Anti-corruption day tomorrow he said: “Corruption isn’t something that happens ‘over there’ – It is a global issue that requires a global response.”
In a powerful and wide-ranging speech the leader of the Labour Party stressed that international rules and laws must be upheld because otherwise "international rules will be seen as a pick and mix menu for the global powers that call the international shots"
Mr Corbyn said Britain “is at a crossroads” and “we have to rethink our role in the world” following our decision to leave the EU.
At a speech to UN officials and others from multilateral institutions in Geneva, he said the global community needs to work together to address “the growing concentration of unaccountable wealth and power in the hands of a tiny corporate elite”, climate change, the refugee crisis and a “bomb first, think later” approach to resolving conflict.
Mr Corbyn declared “international cooperation, solidarity and collective action” are the values we are determined to project in our foreign policy.”
Rejecting those who “want to use Brexit to turn Britain in on itself” or “to put rocket boosters under our current economic system’s insecurities and inequalities”, he said Labour “stands for a completely different future when we leave the EU, drawing on the best internationalist traditions of the labour movement and our country.”
He had strong words for the British government saying that while it "champions some human rights issues, on others it is silent, if not complicit, in their violation.
Mr Corbyn said: "Theresa May turns a wilfully blind eye to the flagrant and large-scale human rights abuses now taking place in Yemen, fuelled by arms sales to Saudi Arabia worth billions of pounds.
“Total British Government aid to Yemen last year was under £150 million, less than the profits made by British arms companies selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. What does that say about our country’s priorities, or our Government’s role in the humanitarian disaster now gripping Yemen.
He said that the "weight of international community opinion" needs to be brought to bear on those supporting Saudi Arabia's war, saying Britain needed to meet "our legal and moral obligations on arms sales, and to negotiate an urgent ceasefire and settlement of this devastating conflict.”
Mr Corbyn also called out President Trump's saying his "attack on multilateralism, human rights and international law should deeply trouble us all"
Warning that "Trump and Kim Jong-un threaten a terrifying nuclear confrontation with their absurd and bellicose insults.
Mr Corbyn called for an end to “impunity for corporations that violate human rights or wreck our environment” and announced that the next Labour government will work to create a legally binding treaty to regulate global corporations, their subsidiaries and suppliers under international human rights law.
On climate change Mr Corbyn said that global warming was "undeniable" calling on the governments including the UK to expand their capacity to respond to disasters around the world, to factor the costs of environmental degradation into financial forecasting, to stand firm behind the Paris Climate Accords and to take urgent steps on debt relief and cancellation.
He told the audience: “Our planet is in jeopardy."
He finished with a rousing call to "deliver climate justice and a better way to live together on this planet.
"Recognise the humanity of refugees and offer them a place of safety and work for peace, security and understanding."
He said: "The survival of our common humanity requires nothing less."
The Labour leader delivered his speech at the historic Palais de Nations, the Geneva UN HQ.