Britain would hammer financial services professionals who help clients avoid tax under a new law, a Liberal Democrat Treasury Minister said yesterday.

UK Treasury Minister Danny Alexander said there should be a new offence of “corporate failure to avoid preventing an economic crime”.

And Mr Alexander said he hoped to get the new law on to the statute books in the upcoming UK budget — and if that was not possible, it would be a major plank in campaign in the British general election, due to be held in May.

The move would mean that — if corporations and individuals caught avoiding tax were fined, those who advised them would be subject to the same penalties.

But economist and consultant Peter Everson said: “At the moment it’s only a talking point. Professional advisers always guard their own best interests and they are always careful about the advice they give.”

And he added that financial services firms and auditors routinely included indemnity clauses in contracts.

Mr Everson said: “It might go down as a noble idea in an armchair, but the practicalities are different.”

Mr Alexander — whose party is the junior member in the coalition government with the Conservatives — outlined his plan on the BBC TV politics programme, the Andrew Marr Show yesterday.

The centrepiece of the Lib Dem proposals is a new offence of corporate failure to prevent economic crime, including aiding or abetting tax evasion.

But there would also be new penalties for those that help others to commit tax evasion — with the same tough financial penalties as those paid in back tax and fines by the offenders themselves.

And codes of practice for tax advisers would also be toughened to make it harder for businesses and individuals to avoid tax.

Mr Alexander said: “Organisations, be they accountants, banks or whatever, who help people evade tax will be liable for this new offence and crucially liable for financial penalties.

“So, for example, if their customers have to pay back hundreds of millions of pounds in tax then those organisations should have to match that with hundreds of millions of pounds of their own money and I think that’s a very tough disincentive to them to get involved in the first place.”

Mr Alexander likened the problem to someone who helps a burglar break into a home — who is treated in law as an accomplice.

He said: “This is taboo. This is something that absolutely mustn’t happen in our society and we still have a problem with some people thinking they can get away without paying their fair share of tax.

“This is a Liberal Democrat idea for our manifesto. We’ve delivered a lot from our last manifesto tackling avoidance, tackling evasion.

“But I’m going to seek to pursue this within Government over the next few weeks because I think we do have time potentially in the budget or through other processes that are going to take these ideas forward.

“But what I can say is if we’re not able to do that then we absolutely will be making this one of our key things in the general election.”

Mr Everson said: “You would have to be a parliamentary draughtsman to say if they get it in the budget — but it’s a tall order.”