by Luke James and Lamiat Sabin

CHARLOTTE CHURCH likened corporate tax-dodging to “economic terrorism” yesterday and said that Britain should not be pandering to greedy multinational corporations.

The singer and campaigner called for a tough stance on big-money privateers holding Britain to ransom by jumping through loopholes allowing them to avoid paying even a fraction of the tax they owe.

At a press conference in Manchester, where the Tories kicked off their annual conference over the weekend surrounded by more than 100,000 anti-austerity protesters, she accused the party of waging “class war.”

She criticised the government’s “absolutely obscene” inheritance tax cuts for the richest 4 per cent richest people while the Tories snatch away £4.4 billion a year in tax credits from underpaid workers from next April.

Ms Church said: “When it comes to terrorism, Britain’s line is we will not negotiate with terrorists.

“And some of these multinational corporations who are basically setting the rules of what they want to pay and how they can manage to avoid paying tax.

“That’s a form of economic terrorism. Why do we stand for that?”

The focus should be switched from benefit fraudsters — accounting for just 0.7 per cent of claimants — to those who avoid paying tax on “phenomenal amounts of profit,” she added.

Ms Church blasted Justice Secretary Michael Gove as a hypocrite after he criticised the wealthy celebrity for having the compassion to join hundreds of thousands of people from across Britain in protests against the austerity ideology.

Mr Gove attempted to play down efforts made by “comfortable millionaires” such as her and Russell Brand during the conference, and said they failed “to understand the people who make Britain great.”

The Welsh pop musician hit back by saying that Mr Gove was “projecting” his own issues.

She added: “I think that he is projecting onto me, actually, what is his own situation. He’s also a comfortable millionaire who is going round spouting his opinion left, right and centre.

“His idea that I don’t know about real people who make this country great is totally ridiculous. I can’t imagine that he is in such constant contact with such normal people as I am.”