UK tax protesters spied upon by undercover police

At least two plain-clothes officers of Met police's Forward Intelligence Teams spotted at London tax avoidance protest

Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images

Paul Lewis, Adam Gabbatt, Matthew Taylor and Simon Jeffery
Guardian

Scotland Yard has deployed undercover officers to spy on a network of activists whose viralcampaign against tax avoiders threatens to close down hundreds of shops in the run-up to Christmas. The surveillance officers were first used at a protest in October, the Guardian can reveal, despite an assurance given to parliament last year that only officers in full uniform gather intelligence at protests.

The group being monitored, UK Uncut, will target high-street stores in 20 cities tomorrow, in its latest attempt to draw attention to the estimated £25bn the Treasury loses each year in tax avoidance.

Last year the Guardian's tax gap investigation found taxpayers had to plug a multibillion-pound hole in the public finances as hundreds of the biggest companies increasingly employed complex and secretive tax arrangements.

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