Goodman pitches for role as scourge of tax-dodgers

Helen Goodman, the Bishop Auckland MP, has thrown her hat in the ring to be the chairwoman of the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) committee.

In the last Parliament, the role made fellow Labour MP Margaret Hodge a household name, as she lambasted both tax-evading companies and the failure to prosecute them.

Famous multi-nationals including Amazon and Starbucks were interrogated and condemned live on television, as was Google, which was memorably told: “You do do evil.”

Now Ms Goodman is canvassing support among her fellow MPs to step into the 70-year-old Ms Hodge’s shoes, after a secret ballot in about three weeks’ time.

In a round-robin letter, the Bishop Auckland highlighted her background both as a past member of the PAC and, before that, as a Treasury civil servant who worked on public spending.

And she hinted at a similarly ferocious approach to the current chairwoman in tackling HMRC’s “pathetic” efforts to prosecute tax evaders.

Ms Goodman wrote: “Whatever view one takes over the right level and scope of public expenditure, there is a consensus across the House that public money should be used effectively and efficiently.

“I am also totally committed to continuing Margaret Hodge’s innovation of addressing the effectiveness of tax collection.”

The decision means Ms Goodman has quit Labour’s frontbench team ahead of the reshuffle that will follow the election of a new leader, in mid-September.

At the election, she was a spokeswoman on work and pensions and, before that, on communications and broadcasting.

Ms Goodman said: “The opportunity to be chair of the Public Accounts Committee is a great opportunity.

“It’s been great to be a minister and an Opposition spokeswoman, but I have done that for five years – so it’s time to do something different.”

At least two other Labour MPs, including Birmingham MP Gisela Stuart, are expected to pitch for the PAC job, which traditionally goes to the Opposition party.