Spain's economy minister Cristobal Montoro said that no one who has operated in tax havens should be part of government, making reference to the resignation of Jose Manuel Soria from the post of acting minister of industry on Friday after it was discovered he had lied about his participation in a company in Jersey.

Jose Manuel Soria resigned from parliament and his ministerial posts Friday days before he was due to appear in Parliament to explain his claim that he never ran or owned a Bahamian offshore company, although his name appeared on leaked documents identifying him as director of a firm.

Spain's El Confidencial digital news site this week published a September 1992 document naming him and another man as one of two directors of a company named U.K. Lines Ltd.

Soria, who also held the energy and tourism portfolios, told reporters Monday he never "had shares, nor participation, nor any position of responsibility" with the company. He said a British company with that name was a service provider for a family shipping business he used to run.

Later, apparent contradictions in his explanations and further reports that he allegedly had an offshore company in Jersey led to increased calls from opposition parties for his resignation.

In a statement, Soria(above)  said he was resigning "in light of the succession of mistakes committed over the past few days" in explaining his business activities prior to entering politics, mistakes he said were due to "the lack of precise information concerning things that happened more than 20 years ago."

He said that although the activities had no relation with his political duties, the obvious harm it was causing the government and his party at such a critical moment led him to take the decision.

Soria, 58, was named minister after the Popular party won a landslide victory in 2011. The party has been running a caretaker government under acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy since a Dec. 20 inconclusive election.