IT WOULD be easy to brush aside the revelations in the Panama Papers as an example of corruption in the developing world being exploited by rich elites.

Blaming the Global South for its problems of corruption is something we in the west do well - indeed the shrill and misleading recent attack by a national newspaper on the aid budget uses this as a stick with which to beat our international development efforts.

However, we miss the point if this is where our attention is drawn when we delve into the Panama Papers.

Corruption, evasion and avoidance by the world elite is happening in our own back garden - in British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies that have in some cases (the Falklands notably aside) descended into safety deposit boxes for the elite and the corrupt.

Britain was second only to Hong Kong in a list of international jurisdictions where the most banks and law firms associated with the Panama Papers operate. UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies sit at the centre of a spectral network of companies used by the super-rich to hide their assets and wealth.

Over half of companies implicated in the Panama Papers are incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Three major British and Channel Islands Banks are among the top 10 banks that most frequently request offshore accounts.

The leak exposes the extent to which UK tax havens and UK-based intermediaries are at the heart of a shadowy system exploited by those who can afford the legal advice and bank accounts.

It is high time we in the UK clean up our own back yard and get serious about tackling the hidden financial systems of our Overseas Territories that not only facilitate tax evasion by the elite but actively encourage it.

Tax evasion in British Overseas Territories is not only a national embarrassment - it denies funds that could be spent on public services at home, and it helps in part to enable global poverty. The IMF recently calculated that developing countries lose $200 billion a year to tax avoidance (substantially more than they receive in aid).

There was welcome news this week that some Overseas Territories will now share more information with HMRC and police – but this government is simply not doing enough to uphold international standards of transparency. The UK can no longer provide tacit shelter, haven and refuge for the world's rich, powerful and corrupt. The shadowy systems of secrecy must come to an end.