HMRC 'sweetheart' tax deal with Google set to be investigated by the EU to see if it broke state aid rules

However since then Number 10 and ministers have distanced themselves from Mr Osborne's comments. Business minister Anna Soubry on Wednesday said Google had not paid "an awful lot of money" to settle the claim.

Ms Vestager told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday she was able to "use state aid tools to look for more individual companies and more selective advantages being given out in the form of tax rulings".

So-called "sweetheart deals" for big companies were "unfair and sometimes it is also illegal state aid", Ms Vestager said.

Asked whether she would examine the situation, the commissioner said: "That is way too early to say because I don't know the details of the deal.

"If we find there is something to be concerned about, if someone writes to us and says this is maybe not as it should be, then we will take a look."

The Scottish National Party said on Thursday that the party would submit a complaint, which would trigger the start of a possible investigation.

The news came as one of Google's biggest British shareholders has called on the company to pay "much more" in British taxes.

James Anderson - whose Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust owns £120 million of shares in Google's parent company, Alphabet - said it was in the company's own interest to pay a "decent" rate of tax.

His comments came after a furious Commons row over Google's settlement with HM Revenue and Customs covering the past 10 years.

Mr Anderson told The Times that Google and other international companies accused of failing to pay their fair share of tax would earn respect if they agreed voluntarily to contribute "much more".

"My take remains that it is in the long-term interests of Google and others of that ilk to pay decent rates of tax and that they and others would be best served in taking the lead in volunteering," he said.

"They are beneficiaries of state spending at many levels and in return they would get respect."

Google has also hit out at the coverage of its deal. In a letter to the Financial Times, Peter Barron, Google's vice president of communications and public affairs, claimed there had been little discussion about "the international tax rules and how they work".

He wrote: "As a US company, we pay the bulk of our corporate tax in the US: 3.3 billion dollars in the last reported year. What should Google pay in the UK? We pay tax based on the value added by the economic activity of our staff here, at the current standard rate: 20%.

"After a six-year audit we are paying the full amount of tax that HM Revenue & Customs agrees we should pay, including £130m in additional back tax.

"Governments make tax law, the tax authorities independently enforce the law, and Google complies with the law."

At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron angrily attacked former Labour ministers - including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling - for allowing the company to get away with paying no taxes for years.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, however, complained that under the Conservatives there was "one rule for big multinational companies and another for ordinary, small businesses and self-employed workers".

The Government also came under pressure from Brussels, with French MEP Eva Joly, vice chairwoman of the Special European Parliamentary Committee on Tax Rulings, calling for Chancellor George Osborne to face questions about the "very bad deal".

How the Government changed its tune on the Google deal

Friday

Chancellor George Osborne tells reporters at a summit of world and business leaders at Davos: “This is a major success of our tax policy. We’ve got Google to pay taxes and I think that is a huge step forward and addresses that perfectly legitimate public anger that large corporations have not been paying tax. I think it’s a really positive step.”

Monday

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London and member of the political Cabinet, says in his Daily Telegrpah column that the deal was “derisory” adding: "George Osborne has made progress. The Google payback is a start. We now need to go further."

Tuesday

A Number 10 spokesman declines to say the Google deal was a “major success”, preferring to describe it as a “step forward” and a “positive step”.

Wednesday

David Cameron blames Labour for the bill, telling MPs at Prime Minister's Questions: We're talking about tax that should have been collected under a Labour government, raised by a Conservative government."

Moments later Business minister Anna Soubry tells BBC Radio 4's World At One: "It doesn't sound like an awful lot of money, of course it doesn't. It would be silly to say otherwise. But if it is within the rules.”

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