Darling in tax row as he fails to hit Barclays

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Barclays ran into a storm of protest last week as it emerged that it had a team of more than 100 highly-paid executives creating complex tax-avoidance structures to save billions of pounds of tax for itself and clients.

The revelations were particularly incendiary as chief executive John Varley is negotiating to take advantage of a taxpayer-backed insurance scheme for billions of pounds of its toxic assets.

But today it emerged that chancellor Alistair Darling will not be taking tougher measures against tax-avoiding banks seeking taxpayer support than those who are not.

Darling will publish a code of practice on tax avoidance at about the time of next month's Budget, urging all banks to apply the spirit of the law as well as following it to the letter.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Vince Cable, who kicked off the Barclays controversy after receiving leaked information from a whistleblower, has described the code as "limp-wristed". The bank, he said, should not be allowed to take part in any taxpayer-funded scheme until its bankers "stop their systematic attempts to avoid paying UK tax".

The Treasury said in a statement: "The asset protection scheme and code of practice on taxation for the banking sector are separate issues."