The Ritz Hotel in London has not paid any corporation tax in the 17 years since it was taken over by the reclusive Barclay twins.

According to a report BBC Panorama, the profitable hotel has used a series of tax relief schemes to reduce its corporation tax to zero.

A number of companies – including Amazon, Starbucks, and Google – have come in for criticism in recent weeks, after reportedly paying little or no corporation tax.

Starbucks has recently stated it will increase the level of tax it pays in the UK.

In defence of the situation at the Ritz, the twins said they have had nothing to do with the running of the UK companies.

The brothers also own the Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspaper titles.

The Ritz is controlled by offshore trust.

However, the trusts were set up by the twins and one of the brothers attends the trust meetings.

Richard Murphy, from the Tax Justice Network, told the BBC: “These meetings are taking place in Monaco, but there is no doubt that sitting right in the middle of the meetings are the Barclay brothers who are therefore able to exercise control of these companies.”