David Cameron has been challenged to reveal whether he discussed tax evasion at HSBC with Lord Green, the bank's former boss who was subsequently appointed a Tory minister.
There were fierce clashes at Prime Minister's Questions amid revelations that wealthy donors to political parties were among those who legally held accounts with HSBC's private Swiss bank.
Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron was a "dodgy prime minister" who is "up to his neck" in the HSBC tax avoidance scandal - but the PM hit back, claiming his rival had relied on trade union cash to win the Labour leadership.
Mr Miliband claimed that the Prime Minister must have talked to Lord Green about HSBC as a coalition minister issued a press release in 2011 referring to the investigation into HSBC's Geneva account holders.
The Opposition leader said: "Do you expect us to believe that in Stephen Green's three years as a minister you never had a conversation with him about what was happening at HSBC?"
Mr Cameron said the Tories had a far better record than Labour on tax avoidance - introducing measures to stop hedge funds dodging levies, make foreigners pay stamp duty and tax all bank profits.
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson asked Mr Cameron directly whether he had conversations about HSBC tax avoidance with Lord Green, adding: "If not, why not?"
The Prime Minister said "every proper process was followed" when Lord Green was made a minister in 2011.
He said: "I consulted the Cabinet Secretary, I consulted the director for propriety and ethics, and of course the House of Lords appointments commission now looks at someone's individual tax affairs before giving them a peerage.
"I made the appointment, it was welcomed by Labour, and three years later they were still holding meetings with him."
Mr Cameron pointed out that Lord Green was the head of Labour prime minister Gordon Brown's business advisory council and was invited on a trade mission by the party in 2013 - three years after the HSBC revelations first surfaced.
The party leaders also clashed over donors, with Mr Miliband claiming that seven Tory donors who had given £5m to the Conservatives were linked to the scandal, which involved the banking giant's Swiss arm.
During PMQs in the Commons, Mr Miliband said: "You gave a job to the head of HSBC and you let the tax avoiders get away with it.
"There's something rotten at the heart of the Conservative Party and it's you."
Mr Cameron replied: "For 13 years they sat in the Treasury, they did nothing about tax transparency, nothing about tax dodging, nothing about tax avoidance.
"This government has been tougher than any previous government. That's why they are desperate, that's why they are losing."
The Prime Minister pointed out that Labour donor Lord Paul was also caught up in the revelations.
Mr Miliband named Lord Fink as undertaking "tax avoidance activities" in Switzerland.
The Tory peer said the allegation was untrue and defamatory and challenged him to repeat the claim outside the Commons or withdraw it publicly.
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith denied The Guardian's report that he was the holder of an account at the HSBC Suisse private bank.
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