NORTH Herefordshire MP Bill Wiggin has asked if the taxman plans to investigate the tax status of the Hereford Times’ owner Newsquest.

Mr Wiggin also asked the local government secretary last week what statutory requirements rest on local authorities, such as Herefordshire Council, to advertise in local print media rather than online.

Last month, Mr Wiggin railed against the Hereford Times after the independent press regulator had not upheld his complaint against the paper.

He had objected to a Hereford Times report last November revealing that in addition to his £76,000 a year MP’s salary, he had received (entirely legal) payments for his work as managing director of Bermuda-based Emerging Asset Management.

The paper had also published comments from Labour politicians questioning the morality of MPs being involved in work that, they claimed, helps rich people to legally avoid paying tax.

Mr Wiggin complained that not only had the Hereford Times linked him with tax avoidance, it had also published letters from readers associating him with the Paradise Papers, a leak of documents throwing light on the world of offshore finance.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation investigated but ruled that its Editors’ Code of Practice had not been breached.

Last week, Mr Wiggin asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether HMRC plans to investigate the tax status of Gannett Corporation and the losses at Newsquest.

To which Mel Stride, financial secretary to the Treasury, replied: “HMRC has a strong track record in tackling avoidance, fraud and evasion and non-compliance in the system.

“Since 2010, HMRC compliance activity has brought in more than £175 billion which would otherwise have gone unpaid. “HMRC cannot comment on the tax affairs of identifiable businesses given their duty of maintaining taxpayer confidentiality.”

Mr Wiggin also asked the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government what statutory requirements rest on local authorities with regard to having to advertise in local print media rather than just online.

Rishi Sunak, parliamentary under-secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: “There are over 600 requirements to publish statutory notices in one or more local newspapers circulating in the area of where the order relates is situated.

“Each government department has its own requirements, examples of which include planning notices, traffic orders and alcohol licensing notices.

“Some, like planning notices or temporary traffic regulation orders, must be publicised on a frequent basis. There is no single place to find the legislation for statutory notices.

“Each notice has its own piece of either primary or secondary legislation.”

Henry Faure Walker, Newsquest chief executive, said: “In order to make sure the public is kept properly informed it’s essential that local councils and Government bodies continue to use their local newspaper to advertise their notices in print and online.”