FACEBOOK earned almost £850million in Britain last year but its boss won’t accept that he is accountable to appear before MPs and explain the firm’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Mark Zuckerberg has come under intense criticism from the parliamentary committee investigating fake news after the head of Facebook refused an invitation to testify in front of MPs and put senior executives in the firing line instead.

He didn’t address the data abuse controversy at all for a number of days, and eventually did so with a statement on his site that itself drew criticism from users. For a man who is in the communications business, Mr Zuckerberg seems rather reluctant to answer his critics.

He has been invited three times to speak to the committee, which is investigating the effects of fake news on democracy, but has always sent deputies to testify in his stead.

Even when the committee travelled to Washington DC in February to obtain oral evidence from US companies, Facebook flew over its UK policy director rather than send a high-level executive to speak to the committee.

The social media company’s UK revenue quadrupled last year to £842.4m, helping pre-tax profits increase to £58.4m. But its UK corporation tax only rose to £5.1m from £4.2m a year earlier, and once deductible expenses were applied, the company paid £2.58m.

This is a business which does very well out of Britain and Parliament deserves to hear from the top man himself, rather than listen to one of his lackeys.