Was this Chuka's finest hour?

Most young MPs starting out at Westminster would be happy to just sit, watch and learn. Unless that is your name is Chuka Umunna. He does all of that-sit, watch and learn but also a great deal more.

Yesterday on the Treasury Select Committee looking at banking, the MP for Streatham, almost single-handedly, took on Barclay's Bob Diamond, the most powerful banker in the country, perhaps in Europe, and frankly made mince meat of him.

He repeatedly questioned the banker about tax avoidance in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, to which the perplexed Diamond had no answers.

It was a masterful performance by Umunna that would not have gone unnoticed by his boss Ed Miliband MP and his political adversaries, who may now quake in their boots if they face the formidable MP across the floor.

Here is the exchange:

Umunna: The Streatham MP asks if Barclays will reduce its offshore companies to transact business. “I’m happy to look into the numbers you gave,” says Diamond. “It would be inappropriate to discuss something I don’t know.” Ouch.

Diamond: “I can assure you the bank is not evading taxes”.

Umunna: I told you he’s not stupid – said he wasn’t asking about evasion (illegal), he was asking about avoidance (legal) on a “grand scale”. Awkward.

Umunna: “If Barclays wasn’t involved in tax avoidance, why did it injunct the Guardian when it tried to discuss the issue”.

Diamond:“Our injunction was because someone stole confidential client information, which is against the law”.

Diamond: “We paid £2bn of tax last year to HMRC and over the last six years we paid about £12.5bn…I think that’s the number you’re looking for”.

The full footage of the meeting can be viewed here, with Chuka Umunna's exchange beginning at 10.54am.

Umunna says most of this could be paid by employees, ie through payroll taxes. Diamond doesn’t know if this is the case or not, he maintains.

Chuka Umunna asks how many Barclays subsidiaries are incorporated in the Isle of Man. Diamond says he doesn’t know. Umunna says there were 30 in that jurisdiction. He asks about Jersey. “The number is 38,” says Chuka. Ditto Cayman Islands – 181. Umunna points out: “All these are well known tax havens…a cursory reading of your group returns suggests you have over 300 companies operating in tax jurisdictions around the world”.

With just over six months under his belt in Parliament, Umunna gave a performance as if he was a seasoned politician with experience way beyond his age.

Simon Woolley