Marks & Spencer has become the latest in a string of UK companies to face criticism from tax campaigners over the way it structures its online sales to Europe - with one describing its sales operation as similar to that of the internet retail giant Amazon.

The outgoing governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King has warned that a government scheme to help the housing market should not become permanent.

Marissa Mayer, the former Google executive who is now in charge of Yahoo, is poised to create yet another nothing-to-riches tale in the web industry with the $1.1bn (�720m) acquisition of the blogging site Tumblr.

Prime Minister David Cameron has urged British overseas territories to "get their house in order" and sign up to international treaties on tax.

Ed Miliband has vowed to rip up the rule book as prime minister and go it alone if there is no international consensus to tackle multinationals engaging in massive tax avoidance.