THE recent leak of the ‘Panama papers’ shows how powerless and unwilling the UK government is to bring a halt to the extreme practices used by some of the world’s richest people and multinationals to avoid paying their fair share of tax.

To tackle this problem, we need more international cooperation and the most obvious way to do this is to remain in Europe.

Having ordered Starbucks to repay €30 million, the EU’s ongoing investigations into over €7bn of unpaid taxes from Apple do a lot to justify the EU’s position as a world leader in the global fight against tax avoidance.

The EU has also presented proposals for clamping down on tax avoidance which will force large multinationals operating in the EU to publicly disclose their earnings and tax bills.

These are crucial steps towards preventing companies from generating profits in one country and paying tax in another.

All of this is achieved by countries working together for their common good.

We can achieve so much more if we work with our European partners and take a lead in the EU.

The Brexit camp claims that leaving Europe will make the UK a more influential country.

But this could not be further from the truth. Leaving Europe would seriously and irreversibly dent our influence on the world stage and our reputation as a truly internationalist country.

Raising barriers to a market of 500 million and walking away from an institution where UK government ministers meet their European counterparts every week puts us in a weaker, less influential position.

We cannot fight climate change, global insecurity and tax avoidance by retreating from our closest allies and trying to go it alone.

On June 23, the choice is stark: shut ourselves out of decision-making in Europe for good or make the most of our EU membership and reaffirm our intentions to play a leading role on the world stage.

Len Gates, chair of NW Hants Liberal Democrats