A bid by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to increase transparency in offshore jurisdictions like Bermuda was a stunt designed to deflect an EU tax bid that would have damaged the City of London, a Conservative member of the House of Lords has claimed.

Mr Cameron, leader of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition due to face a general election next month, was said by Lord Blencathra, the former Conservative Home Office Minister David Maclean, to have used a crackdown on offshore jurisdictions as a “purely political gesture” designed to head off the EU and the group of industrialised nations G8’s attempts to rein in the City.

Lord Blencathra made the claims in a submission to the Cayman Islands government last year, which has just been made public, according to UK newspaper The Guardian.

Lord Blencathra told the Caymans government: “In the early part of last year, the Germans and others were pushing hard for a financial transaction tax, which would have severely hurt the City of London.

“It was and is a top UK government priority to head that off.

“The French were pushing for ‘blacklists’ of jurisdictions with any tax regime lower than theirs. It was also a UK government objective to head that off.”

Lord Blencathra — who was found to have breached the House of Lords code of conduct in 2014 by signing an agreement to lobby on behalf of the Caymans — said that Mr Cameron had used the 2014 G8 summit in Ireland to focus on a crackdown on so-called tax havens a priority.

Lord Blencathra told the Caymans government in his report that the UK government knew it could not just refuse to consider proposals from other EU nations.

He wrote: “It has to present either a genuine alternative or a false initiative which will divert other member states from pursuing their agenda. The UK government had to head off the financial transaction tax and blacklists.

“The non-governmental organisations had put the UK government under pressure to make changes of beneficial ownership, the media and the public were keen to criticise low tax jurisdictions as operating unfairly and when Starbucks, Amazon and Apple profit-shifting became headline news, that was the perfect opportunity for the UK to exploit these issues and play down the financial transaction tax and blacklists.”

Lord Blencathra submitted the document to the Caymans government while acting as a lobbyist on behalf of the Caribbean country, but said it had been written in a “personal capacity based on my knowledge of United Kingdom politics”.

Lord Blencathra’s contract with the Caymans ended after its terms were revealed by journalists in March 2014.

The Bermuda Ministry of Finance did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

But Finance Minister Bob Richards late last year told the House of Assembly that a UK bid to have its Overseas Territories introduce a public register of beneficial ownership would cause severe damage to Bermuda’s economy.

The Island already requires companies to provide details of beneficial ownership — a higher standard than the UK — but the register is not available to the public.

And Mr Richards told MPs that Bermuda would consider a public register if major nations like the UK, US and Canada introduced one — but not before.