Tax Exiles Should Not be Allowed to Bankroll Political PartiesThe Political Parties and Elections Bill, currently before Parliament, could be used to close this loophole.
My recent letter to the Guardian (29 May 2009) explains: My friend Jack Straw is looking for good ideas for the reform of parliament (Party leaders agree to talks, 27 May). I have long believed that tax exiles should not be allowed to bankroll UK political parties. Unfortunately, Jack disagrees. For the past two years a tsunami of Ashcroft money - from the Belize-based Tory donor Michael Ashcroft - has engulfed my Pendle constituency. The Lib Dem peer Tony Greaves, a constituent of mine, estimates that the Conservatives are on course to spend £250,000 here. My Commons amendment to the political parties and elections bill was signed by 216 MPs and would have closed the Ashcroft loophole, but it was not taken because of procedural fancy footwork.
I asked Dale Campbell Savours to table my amendments in the Lords and they have now been fully aired and debated. They will be voted on at the Lords report stage in mid-June, before the bill returns to the Commons. I am writing to all Labour peers asking them to support Dale and to defy the Labour whip. I want them to send the amended bill back to MPs where, Jack permitting, we can debate and vote on the matter.
Gordon Prentice MP
Lab, Pendle 22 July 2009: MP Triumphs as Tax Exiles Bill Becomes Law A Bill which prevents rich tax exiles from making huge donations to political parties received Royal Assent last night and is now the law of the land. The new “tax exile” provisions in the Political Parties and Elections Act represent a personal triumph for local MP, Gordon Prentice, whose single minded determination forced a change in the law. His Commons amendments, initially opposed by the Government, were taken up, word for word, in the House of Lords by Lord Dale Campbell-Savours and pressed to a vote. For the first time ever, more Labour Peers voted against the Labour Government on one of its own measures than voted for it. Justice Minister, Jack Straw, at that point conceded defeat. Under the Act, donors to political parties who give more than £7,500 a year will have to sign a declaration that they are UK residents for tax purposes. If they misrepresent their tax status they can be jailed. Speaking from his constituency office in Nelson earlier today, the MP said: “It has been obvious for years, for anyone with eyes to see, that millionaire tax exiles such as the former Conservative Vice Chairman, Lord Laidlaw, were buying elections by pouring cash into target constituencies.” “I am delighted the tax exile loophole is, at long last, to be closed. However, this part of the Bill will not take effect until after further consultation by the independent watchdog, the Electoral Commission.” “The plain fact is this should have been done years ago. The changes will come too late to influence spending in the run up to the forthcoming General Election.” Note to Editors: The Electoral Commission writes: The Political Parties and Elections Act has now received Royal Assent. Whilst the Bill was before Parliament, we committed to produce an enforcement policy that would set out how we intend to put these changes into effect. We have now launched a consultation on our future enforcement policy, which can be found here: www.electoralcommission.org.uk/focus-on-items/PPE Press Clippings, etc.Post Confession...10 March 2010 (Global Post): Scandal threatens Britain's conservatives LONDON, United Kingdom — With a general election expected to be called within weeks, Britain's opposition Conservative Party has watched its wafer-thin polling lead obliterated by a scandal about the tax status of its largest donor and important backroom operative — Lord Ashcroft... ... In a weekend poll, 70 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Ashcroft’s non-dom status, and 55 percent said they thought the issue had damaged the Conservatives. Yesterday the scandal threatened to blow up into a constitutional crisis when it was reported that Lord Oakeshott, a senior spokesman for the Liberal Democratic Party, has written to a high cabinet official demanding an investigation of Ashcroft’s ennoblement “to establish whether the Queen conferred a life peerage … under false pretences.” ---more---
09 March 2010 (Paul Flynn's Blog): Contented digestion Had a meal tonight with Jack Straw and Gordon Prentice. Both had had good days. At last Gordon is being recognised for his dogged tireless campaign to expose the truth about Lord Ashcroft. A fellow MP this afternoon said that he should be named the 'campaigner of the year.' Quite right. ---more---
09 March 2010 (Labour Online): Buckland Reveals Ashcroft Link In his response to a letter from me, Tory candidate for South Swindon Robert Buckland has revealed that his campaign has received funding from Lord Ashcroft, the disgraced Tory donor. Mr Buckland admitted that his campaign has received financial support from the Tory Party Marginal Seats Fund that is bank-rolled by Lord Ashcroft, who does not pay full tax in the UK. I am glad that Mr Buckland has come clean about how he is paying for his glossy leaflets with the dodgy donations from Lord Ashcroft. He needs to know that the people of Swindon will not let this election be bought by someone who dodges his tax bill. In my letter to Mr Buckland I asked him to pay back any money that came from Lord Ashcroft, unfortunately he refused to answer this question. My leaflets are paid for by small donations from local people in Swindon and all donations to the local and national Labour Party are declared with complete transparency. Why should a billionaire who does not pay full taxes in this country be allowed to buy the election in places like Swindon? ---more--- 09 March 2010 (Western Morning News): Tories urged to reveal funding LABOUR and Liberal Democrat candidates in the Westcountry have stepped up pressure on their Tory opponents to "come clean" about receiving central funding from Lord Ashcroft to fight the election. It comes after the Western Morning News revealed yesterday how Lib-Dem candidates – and their families – had donated thousands of pounds to local party coffers last year, in an attempt to take on the millions from Tory central office. Charlotte Mackenzie, Labour candidate for the new seat of Truro and Falmouth, challenged her Tory opponent Sarah Newton over the revelation Lord Ashcroft was non-domiciled for tax purposes. "Instead of paying tens of millions of pounds in tax – money that might have helped to fund Cornish schools and hospitals – Lord Ashcroft chose to spend the money on Conservative political campaigns instead," Ms Mackenzie said... ... "Lord Ashcroft has withheld untold sums from the public purse, while filling Tory coffers to the tune of millions of pounds. Having been born and brought up in Cornwall, I know local people will be shocked at this naked attempt to buy seats for new candidates." ---more--- 08 March 2010 (Progress Online): David v Goliath candidate of the day: Gordon Prentice Gordon Prentice has been at the forefront of the campaign to expose Lord Ashcroft's UK tax status, something which bore fruit when his freedom of information request compelled Ashcroft to reveal himself as a non-dom. His Buying the Election website has detailed the effects of the Belize boon in his home constituency of Pendle, from the literature put out by the local Conservative party to his ongoing efforts in the name of transparency. ---more--- 08 March 2010 (big Think): How to Buy an Election Lord Michael Ashcroft is a Conservative Peer who does not pay any income tax on his foreign earnings. He is more usually described as a “Belize-based businessman”; Belize may not be one of the better known tax havens, but he has companies based in others that are, most notably the Cayman Islands. I imagine that he has so arranged his affairs that he does not pay much tax at all... ... So where have all of the millions gone? Why, into the fifty or so marginal constituencies where British elections are won. Here these extra resources do make a real difference, and unsurprisingly the Conservatives are faring a lot better in the marginals than elsewhere, at least that is what the polls are saying... ... If the Conservatives do win the General Election literally two months away, the party will owe Ashcroft – despite all of the current controversy – a huge debt of thanks. That the British election may we have been bought by someone who doesn’t like paying taxes in Britain is utterly appalling. But perhaps only then, will the British people wake up and “smell the coffee.” Our democracy is reverting to something primeval, a franchising operation, run by and for, a handful of the super rich, who unlike the rest of us don’t pay their taxes. ---more--- 08 March 2010 (The Daily Mirror): David Cameron enjoyed lavish banquet with Lord Ashcroft weeks before tax dodge admission David Cameron and Lord Ashcroft shared a table at a lavish fundraising banquet just weeks before the secretive peer admitted he dodges tax, the Mirror can reveal. Mr Cameron's cosy evening with the Tories' biggest donor at the dinner in aid of election campaign coffers is a huge embarrassment as the leader desperately tries to distance himself from the "Lord Cashcroft" scandal. Tories blame the fiasco on their former leader William Hague, who proposed the billionaire's peerage. But Labour MP John Mann said: "David Cameron would rather take the money and ask no questions, just like William Hague did before him." ---more--- 08 March 2010 (The Independent): Ashcroft row exposes Cameron weakness, says Mandelson The row over Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft's tax status exposed David Cameron's "fundamental weakness" and his inability to change the Tory Party, senior Cabinet minister Lord Mandelson claimed today. Lord Mandelson sought to place Mr Cameron at the heart of the Ashcroft affair, telling The Guardian that the billionaire businessman had the Tory leader "by the balls" and was able to "call the shots" in the party. His comments came as the Conservatives accused Labour of "rank hypocrisy and political opportunism" over Lord Ashcroft's non-dom status, which allows him to avoid UK tax on earnings from overseas, despite an assurance he gave 10 years ago to become a permanent British resident. Lord Mandelson told The Guardian: "William Hague gave very clear undertakings to then prime minister Tony Blair and to Parliament." Those undertakings had not been met, said the Business Secretary, adding: "For 10 years that fact has been concealed from the British people. "During that time, David Cameron and William Hague have repeatedly said that the undertakings were being met. So either they were misleading people or they were being misled by Ashcroft. Which is it? "Either way, Mr Cameron has shown extraordinary weakness. If he knew the truth, he should have fired Ashcroft. If not, why was he too afraid to ask Ashcroft the awkward direct question?" And he alleged: "Mr Cameron would rather be seen as complicit in Ashcroft's deception than take him on... (Ashcroft) has David Cameron by the balls. "Stand up to him, and the Tories lose his money. Bow down in front of him, and Ashcroft continues to call the shots. ---more--- 07 March 2010 (The Sunday Mirror): Tory propaganda blitz targets town His face has landed on every doormat. Along the old cobbled streets, on the smart new estates, in the cottages lying miles out of town, they have grown to recognise the smoothly groomed features of Andrew Stephenson, one of the would-be Tory MPs being backed by Ashcroft money. Mr Stephenson is favourite to win the seat of Pendle, where Labour has a slender majority of 2,180. It would be a handsome victory... fuelled by an estimated £250,000 of battle funds from Lord Ashcroft. Thanks to the billionaire peer, wealth is pouring into the Lancashire hills on a scale not seen since the old cotton mill owners left. Ashcroft money is paying for a bombardment of Tory propaganda that began in 2007, as soon as Mr Stephenson, 29, an insurance broker from an affluent Manchester suburb, was adopted as candidate. Since then, every few weeks, each one of the 37,000 addresses in the constituency has been mailed with party literature at enormous cost... ... However, one former candidate told the Sunday Mirror: "Ashcroft doesn't ask for anything from you, but after the election, you're beholden to him." Privately, Labour MP Gordon Prentice admits he might be defeated by the power of Tory money. But he adds: "I don't believe Pendle is for sale." ---more--- 07 March 2010 (The Guardian): Tebbit says Lord Ashcroft should have admitted tax status years ago Formal complaint alleging 'pecuniary advantage by deception' sent to Scotland Yard's specialist crime directorate Lord Ashcroft should have admitted that he was a non-dom many years ago because keeping the matter secret suggested that he had done something wrong, Lord Tebbit said today... ... The News of the World... appeared to urge the leadership to drop Ashcroft as deputy chairman. "A very rich bloke is managing to sort his own taxes very quickly, thank you, while the rest of us have to pay through the nose to bail out his banker pals. Cameron, and particularly Hague, have had chance after chance to lance this boil of a problem, but they didn't. Now it has come back to haunt them."... ... In a separate development, the Guardian can reveal that a formal complaint was sent last week to Cressida Dick, the head of the Metropolitan police's specialist crime directorate. It claims that the Tory peer has gained "a pecuniary advantage by deception" by failing to keep promises that he would become a permanent resident in Britain. ---more--- 07 March 2010 (Daily Mail): Mrs Cameron 'might have voted Labour': Source suggests Tory leader's wife voted for Blair... and might vote for Brown David Cameron's wife Samantha may have voted Labour in the past – and could even vote for Gordon Brown in the next Election... ... A new BPIX survey suggests the £2million campaign by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft to win marginal seats has stalled as voters complain Mr Cameron lacks a clear message... The Great Tory Marginal Myth - Ashcroft millions only worth 13 seats The £2million spent by Tory tycoon Michael Ashcroft on David Cameron’s Election campaign may win the party as few as 13 extra seats, according to a new poll. It means each seat will have cost the peer more than £150,000 – and on present trends it is unlikely to be enough to oust Gordon Brown from No.10. ---more--- 07 March 2010 (Business Insider): Hung Parliament Watch: New Poll Shows UK Conservatives Crumbling The Conservatives have lost any sense of superiority in the run-up to the UK elections as Labour have narrowed the nationwide poll gap and taken a sizable lead in seats in Parliament. The Daily Mail reports this morning that new poll numbers show Labour on 314 seats and the Conservatives on 259... ... First, their chief campaign donor Lord Ashcroft was outed for a series of scrupulous off shore tax engagements. And just this morning, it has come to light that the wife of Conservative leader David Cameron has voted Labour in the past, for Tony Blair, and is considering doing so at the next election, according to The Daily Mail. ---more---
07 March 2010 (Andy Reed's Blog): We will Fight Ashcroft Dirty £millions with Hard Work and Real People After another bad week for the Tories as news that multi-millionaire Lord Ashcroft has been misleading people over his tax status Loughborough MP Andy Reed said his local party would rely on hard work and shoe leather to win the election. "We don't have anywhere near the money the Tories have. We aren't funded by this Millionaire from Belize who want to flood seats like Loughborough with his £millions through their marginal seats strategy. I have hundreds of volunteers who give up their spare time and a few quid at a time to help. I believe this is what politics should be about - local people delivering a local candidate because they care about their area." ---more--- 07 March 2010 (The Guardian): Lord Ashcroft goes from Tory saviour to election liability in marginal seats The financial clout that has given the Conservatives a dominant position in the polls has rebounded spectacularly with last week's revelations about the tax status of the man with the cash ... Labour was 20 points behind in the polls. Hove and Portslade – one of a string of marginal seats along the south coast – had been held by the party in 2005 with a majority of only 420, making it the 10th most vulnerable in the country. At the next election it looked certain to be lost . As the party's morale was nosediving, Lord Ashcroft's money was pouring into the local Tory campaign. "I had given up. Yes I had," says Anne Pissaridou, busily packing letters in a pile. But now she is more pumped up than ever. She is clearly part of an anti-Ashcroft backlash that is helping Labour in the marginals the Tory peer has his sights on. Hove and Portslade is like dozens of seats across the country, where Labour and the Liberal Democrat are struggling against the floods of Tory cash. This time round, constituency workers have done their sums and reckon the local Conservative party had a total income last year of more than £40,000, much of it Ashcroft money. It is more than 10 times what they could muster. With those kinds of resources, the Tory candidate, Mike Weatherley, has been able to send out 16-page glossy leaflets, compared to Labour's cheap and cheerful one-page jobs on A4 sheets. Voters are "phone canvassed" by Tory workers and issues they raise are followed up case by case... ... "Why should a billionaire who does not pay full taxes in this country be allowed to buy the election in places like this?" Ashcroft, a deputy chairman of the party, has used his huge personal fortune to fund Tory campaigns in dozens of marginal seats, the ones that the Conservatives must seize to win the next election... ... But now, after Ashcroft made a bombshell announcement last Monday that he is, after all, a "non-dom" who pays tax only on his UK-based earnings and not on his vast overseas wealth, all the major parties are asking if the Ashcroft cash might, in a supreme irony, prove to be more of a liability than an asset to the Conservative party... ... While the Tories attempted to deflect criticism, by saying that Ashcroft was no different from Labour donors such as the non-dom Lord Paul, that defence struggled to work. Paul has no role in Labour party strategy and, unlike Ashcroft, has been open about his tax status. ---more--- 07 March 2010 (The BBC): Lord Ashcroft should lose party role - Harman Harriet Harman has called for Lord Ashcroft to be removed as Conservative Party deputy chairman as the row over the peer's tax status continues. The peer's involvement with the Tories' election campaign "cast doubt" on David Cameron's judgement, she told the BBC. Mr Cameron said he learnt last month that Lord Ashcroft did not pay full UK tax on his overseas earnings. ---more---
06 March 2010 (The Mirror): Lord Ashcroft bought 19 seats for Tories David Cameron's billionaire backer gave £1million to fight 75 marginal seats.. funded from off-shore Tax-dodging Tory Lord Ashcroft’s enormous wealth helped “buy” 19 key seats for his party at the last election. The billionaire peer channelled £1million to 75 marginal constituencies through his company Bearwood Corporate Services. The money went on glossy newsletters and brochures for Tory candidates who started campaigning long before the vote was called and spending rules kicked in. An analysis of the seats by the Sunday Mirror has revealed Ashcroft’s money sparked a switch of tens of thousands of voters from Labour to Tory. The “swing” to the Tories averaged 4.7pc in 19 key seats compared with the 3pc national average. ---more--- and ---more here --- 06 March 2010 (The Guardian): Political Inconvenience Why the Conservatives have been derailed by the Ashcroft affair Before turning to today’s political news, you might find it helpful to take a little time to prepare. Might we suggest that you start by reading Non-Resident and Offshore Tax Planning (a new edition of Lee Hadnum’s authoritative review of the topic costs only £24.95). You should then review Debrett’s, Graham Stewart’s history of The Times, a few books on politics during the Blair era and a sheaf of newspaper cuttings on the financing of political campaigning in marginal seats. Once you have done that, you need to form a view of the correct meaning of “permanent residence” in tax law and of the term “carrying on business” as defined by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act. Then sit back and give a small sigh of satisfaction, for you are ready to immerse yourself in the Ashcroft affair... ... first ... He said he would become a permanent resident, then discreetly negotiated a new status as a long-term resident. He said one thing and did another... ... second ... this desire [for privacy] is not compatible with holding high political office in the Conservative Party... ... third ... Michael Ashcroft has forced his party leader and William Hague, one of his best friends, to endure years of uncomfortable questions and, now, a calamitous scandal at a bad moment. He continues to require them to act as a human political shield for him. This is not what a friend does... ... Finally, the affair poses serious questions about Mr Cameron and Mr Hague. They were too weak to confront Lord Ashcroft and insist that he tell them his tax status. More disturbing still has been their reaction upon learning the truth. They have calculated that taking action would produce too much political turbulence. So, instead, they have have hunkered down, hoping the whole thing will go away. In other words, they have put political convenience ahead of principle. Given that the way Mr Cameron governs his party provides the best insight into how he might govern the country, this is not encouraging. ---more---
06 March 2010 (The Guardian): If it helps, think of Ashcroft as a gigantic duck house The nation raged at MPs' expenses but most ignore this much bigger issue of unelected influence. And so let's find our level "There are two kinds of woman," says Harry Burns to Sally Albright, during one of their late-night phone calls in When Harry Met Sally. "High maintenance and low maintenance. You're the worst kind. You're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance." Were I lying in bed watching Casablanca, talking on the phone to Lord Ashcroft who was also watching Casablanca somewhere across town – and let's face it, it's only a matter of time – I would make a variation of Harry's remark. "Michael," I'd say as we watched Rick and Ilsa at the airport. "There are two kinds of people. Those who pay tax, and exiles who don't. You're the worst kind. You don't like to pay tax, but you think you can forget the exile bit."... ... In the case of Lord Ashcroft, we watch as they become deputy chairman of the Conservative party, amass unquantified power over its leaders, and begin ploughing some of those very millions on which they don't pay tax into intensely targeted campaigns designed to swing elections. David Cameron has honked loud and long about making trust and transparency an election issue, yet he and his lieutenants either misled the public deliberately as to his lordship's status, or were too craven or venal to ask questions. They certainly refused to co-operate with the Electoral Commission's investigation into the matter... ... Yet perhaps it would help those who got their knickers in a twist over pool-cleaning and pet food – but declare of campaign finance "this is a non-story" – to imagine what Ashcroft represents as a really, really big duck house. Inhabited by a giant duck. Picture a vast, multistorey duck house, marginally better appointed than the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Picture this duck house as the seat of government, staffed by thousands, where the elected representatives simply act as courtiers, second-guessing the duck by deciding policy in accordance with where it leaves its droppings on the floor. ---more--- 06 March 2010 (The Times): Tory campaign to target key seats was backed by a £750,000 tax-haven loan The Conservative Party’s last general election campaign was partly financed with a £750,000 loan from an offshore haven, The Times has learnt. The money originated with a company based in the secretive tax shelter of Belize. The law bans overseas businesses from making gifts to British political parties but there is nothing to stop them lending cash in this way. The offshore corporation is registered at the same address in the Central American state as the banking headquarters of Lord Ashcroft. The money was directed into a successful “target seats campaign”, which slashed Tony Blair’s majority, ensuring the defeat of 25 Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs and candidates... ... Accounts filed at Companies House show that a British-based parent company, Bearwood Holdings, borrowed £750,000 from a lender called Sierra Investments Ltd during 2003-04. During the same period, Bearwood Holdings gave £750,000 to Bearwood Corporate Services in exchange for 36,669 extra shares in the company. It already owned the subsidiary outright. Bearwood Corporate Services began pouring cash into local constituency parties, mostly marginals. Election law forbids cash being given to parties by anyone other than individuals on the electoral roll or British-registered companies. It is an offence to enter into any arrangement to conceal or disguise the source of a gift. The Times has traced Sierra Investments to the offshore company register in Belize, a Caribbean tax shelter where Lord Ashcroft has joint citizenship and bases part of his business empire. The Labour MP John Mann said: “It is clearly sleazy, hidden and unethical.” ---more--- 05 March 2010 (Daily Mail): Lord Ashcroft's '£2million Belize tax dodge' piles more pressure on Hague over non-dom deal - Cameron faces damaging questions over Hague role
- Peer moved Tory money to UK from Belize tax haven
- Ashcroft cleared by Election Commission over £5m gift
The Tories were plunged into fresh controversy over Lord Ashcroft’s donations today after it emerged he may have avoided paying £2million in tax on the money he brought back to Britain to donate to the party. The revelations leave David Cameron facing damaging questions over his relationship with William Hague, who as Tory leader in 2000 lobbied for Lord Ashcroft to be awarded his peerage. Money was moved from Belize through the company Stargate, which had bought shares in a small British company. That company had then bought shares in Bearwood Corporate Services, one of the Tories' biggest donors. Over the last six years it donated £5.137 million to the party. Accountants estimate that £2 million in tax would normally be payable on an amount of that size. As a non-domicile, Lord Ashcroft has to pay tax on all his assets in Britain. ---more---
05 March 2010 (The Guardian): Ashcroft in new storm over alleged loans to disgraced island premier - Peer sues over story linking him to Turks and Caicos scandal
- Court papers highlight 'alarming' influence on Hague
Fresh allegations against Lord Ashcroft, this time over his links with a corruption scandal in the Caribbean, are made in high court documents obtained by the Guardian today... ... [The Independent] claims that Ashcroft, who it says has "made substantial political donations in a number of countries … is aware that money can be deployed to acquire political influence and accompanying power". The newspaper says that Ashcroft has an "alarming and close" relationship with Hague and that "tangible safeguards" are needed to prevent the peer wielding influence if Hague comes to power in the UK. "The ultimate responsibility for decisions in relation to the Turks and Caicos Islands rests with the foreign secretary."... ... It adds that Ashcroft's "substantial business interests in the context of the islands' relatively small economies and immature political structures have given him a large amount of influence"... ... Ashcroft says he is in effect being falsely accused that there are "good grounds to fear that he would, if the Conservatives were to win the forthcoming general election, exploit his wealth and influence in such a way as entirely to undermine any prospect of democracy in the islands by causing the Foreign Office to alter its policy". ---more---
05 March 2010 (The Telegraph): Lord Ashcroft's game is David Cameron's shame If you wish to own a political party in Britain, you should at least have the good manners to pay all your taxes in Britain, writes Simon Heffer. It is never too late to do the decent thing, and Michael Ashcroft was right to say he will resign as deputy chairman of the Tory party after the election. His presence has been an embarrassment. If you wish to own a political party in Britain, you should at least have the good manners to pay all your taxes in Britain. Yet the saga reflects shockingly on Dave, who was derelict in allegedly not asking the question about Ashcroft’s tax status; and it also damages Ashcroft’s close crony William Hague. How can we be happy to be ruled by people of such abominable judgment? What else do they know about, but choose not to tell us? This is not a matter just for the Westminster village: it should offend every Tory in the country. ---more---
05 March 2010 (The Guardian): The Tory campaign in your area [updated from the original 02Mar2010] ... Pendle Also featured in a Guardian report on Ashcroft-funded campaigning. Its Labour MP, Gordon Prentice, can hope to reach only some of Pendle's 37,000 households for a chat about voting intentions. When there, he usually finds Tory colour brochures on the hall table, delivered second and sometimes first class Our readers report much the same - glossy leaflets, high-quality mailshots, Royal Mail delivery. One was getting a leaflet every two to three months over the last three years and is now getting one a month. Labour MP Gordon Prentice has uploaded scans of some of them to his website. The reader who sent that link said such materials "have flooded our constituency for several years." ---more--- 05 March 2010 (Bolton News): Tories are accused of trying to ‘buy votes’ BOLTON MP David Crausby has accused his Conservative rival of trying to “buy votes” ahead of the forthcoming General Election. Mr Crausby, who represents Bolton North East, says he is concerned that cash from Conservative vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft is being used to fund a lavish election campaign for his rival Deborah Dunleavy... ... He added: “People are entitled to contribute what they want to whichever political party they want. “But they lose that entitlement, in my eyes, when they do not pay tax on that money, money that could have helped pay for schools and hospitals.” ---more--- 05 March 2010 (Daily Mirror): William Hague is the political disaster who brought us Lord Ashcroft For three decades he was a political joke beyond parody. William Jefferson Hague, the geeky nerd who spent his youthful nights studying Hansard and memorising Churchill's speeches. Who at 16 wowed a Tory conference with that shrill, hectoring speech. The gormless leader who at 36 thought he was being passed the Thatcher ite Flame, only to find it a poisoned chalice handed to any chump foolish enough to take it... ... It is Hague, not George Osborne, from whom Cameron takes most advice, which is why the Michael Ashcroft affair goes right to the top of the Tory chain of command. Ashcroft is Hague's man. Friends call the two "extraordinarily close", with Ashcroft admitting a "mutual chemistry" the instant they met in 1997. So Ashcroft's outing as a non-dom, who went back on a pledge to pay tax here to gain a peerage, casts a long shadow over Hague's integrity. It was Hague who persuaded him to bankroll the party in 1998. Hague who begged Tony Blair to make him a Lord. Hague who refused to give a clear answer when asked nine times by Jeremy Paxman and four times by Andrew Marr if Ashcroft paid tax on his overseas earnings. Cameron wants to show the Tories are the party of the ordinary guy. But thanks to the Ashcroft affair, it may be backfiring. Behind the exaggerated Yorkshire twang, Hague is no Man of The People. His father owned a soft drinks company and Hague attended Oxford University. He now owns £1million homes in Yorkshire and London. ---more--- 05 March 2010 (Daily Mirror): Tories in 'cover-up' as Peter Mandelson savages Lord Ashcroft and David Cameron David Cameron was accused of overseeing a "cover-up" yesterday after top Tories obstructed an inquiry into billionaire backer Lord Ashcroft. It came as the Electoral Commission revealed party staff snubbed a request to talk to investigators probing donations of £5.1million from Lord Ashcroft - but cleared them anyway... ... Meanwhile, Conservative grandee Lord Stanley Kalms yesterday claimed Lord Ashcroft deserved a "kicking" for flouting the spirit of his promise to pay tax in Britain. ---more--- 05 March 2010 (Liverpool Daily Post): Wirral west Tories ‘keep quiet’ over Lord Ashcroft donation TORIES in a key Merseyside seat are refusing to say if they received up to £90,000 from controversial "non-dom" donor Lord Ashcroft. The Wirral West Conservative Association clammed up over the origins of huge sums described as its “fighting fund” in accounts filed with the Electoral Commission. Almost £60,000 was received in 2005 alone – the year of the last General Election, when the seat was almost snatched from Labour – more than doubling the association's war-chest to £95,168. Furthermore, after that election, Lord Ashcroft funded research in Wirral West and 11 other key constituencies to find out why voters were turning their backs on the Tories... ... Maria Eagle, the Labour MP for Garston, said: "The Conservatives should be open with the people of Wirral West about where they are getting their money from. It looks shady. If they are not open with people, could it be that the money has come from a tax exile who can't keep his promises to pay tax and be properly resident in this country?" ---more--- 05 March 2010 (The Independent): New blow for Tories as lead slips in marginals Poll shows crumbling support in target seats as David Cameron is drawn into Ashcroft non-dom row The Conservative lead is crumbling in the crucial marginal seats that David Cameron is relying on to deliver general election victory for the party, a poll last night disclosed. The result was a fresh setback for the Tory leader after a torrid day in which he was drawn deeper into the row over the billionaire peer Lord Ashcroft, when it emerged that he had known for less than a month that Lord Ashcroft had maintained his non-dom tax status for 10 years. The chances of the party drawing a line under the controversy were also wrecked by the announcement that Lord Ashcroft will be summoned to the Commons to explain why he negotiated a secret deal to enter the House of Lords without paying tax in this country on his overseas fortune... ... Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, said it was "astonishing" that Mr Cameron had been kept in the dark about the agreement for 10 years. "At a press conference in December 2007 David Cameron said that he had asked Lord Ashcroft and was given the 'reassurance that the guarantees he made at the time are being met'." He added: "What sort of hold does Lord Ashcroft have on them and the Conservative Party, that they are so weak that they are so incapable of getting to the truth to establish what the facts are, why the British people have been misled for all this time about Lord Ashcroft's residency in this country and the taxes he has been paying?" The Guardian today claims Lord Ashcroft used his offshore status to avoid paying VAT on opinion polls which he commissioned for the Conservatives. It reports that "sources familiar with the transactions" said the bills – estimated at £250,000 - were paid by one of his companies in Belize, meaning he did not pay VAT of about £40,000. ---more--- 05 March 2010 (The Guardian): Lord Ashcroft faces new claims of tax avoidance Exclusive: Bills for huge opinion polls for Conservatives 'sent to peer's Belize firm' Fresh concerns about Lord Ashcroft emerged tonight when he was accused of "systematic tax avoidance" by exploiting his offshore status to avoid paying VAT on opinion polls he commissioned for the Conservatives. Ashcroft privately ordered what he boasted was the biggest political polling exercise ever conducted in Britain in 2005, in order to aid the Tories as they targeted marginal seats. The cost of the polls, commissioned from YouGov and Populus, is believed to have approached at least £250,000. But sources familiar with the transactions told the Guardian that the bills were paid by one his companies in Belize, meaning he did not pay VAT... ... This means that VAT in excess of £40,000 could have been avoided. At the time, Ashcroft was resident in Britain and depicted himself as having paid for the polling personally... ... Tonight a Conservative spokesman disavowed responsibility for Ashcroft's tactics, saying: "We do not recognise this as Conservative party polling." ---more---
04 March 2010 (The Guardian): Tory lead in marginal seats narrows Research conducted in 60 important seats puts the Tories just two points ahead, on 39% compared with Labour's 37% David Cameron suffered another blow tonight after a poll showed that the Tory lead in key marginal constituencies has slumped. As the row over Lord Ashcroft's non-dom status refused to die down, research conducted in 60 important seats puts the Tories just two points ahead, on 39% compared with Labour's 37%... ... The revelation by the multimillionaire deputy chairman of the Tory party has been embarrassing to David Cameron, who has endorsed cross-party calls to ban non-doms from parliament. It emerged today that the Tory party leader only found out last month about Ashcroft's tax status. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary who as Tory leader in 2000 lobbied for Ashcroft to be made a peer, revealed last night he had known for a "few months". There were further problems for the party after the conclusion of an Electoral Commission investigation into £5m it received from a company owned by Lord Ashcroft. The Electoral Commission ruled today that the donations did not breach election laws, but it noted that Tory party officials refused to meet the commission in the course of its 14-month inquiry. The revelations pose new questions for the Conservatives over their acceptance of the money, which has been ploughed into marginal seats ahead of the election. ---more---
04 March 2010 (politics.co.uk): Comment: Ashcroft row could derail the Tories The Ashcroft scandal has revealed a disastrous lack of unity at the heights of the Tory party. The Electoral Commission concluded today that donations from the Michael Ashcroft's Bearwood Corporate Services firm were legal. But the Tories were barely able to breathe a sigh of relief before a devastating piece of news emerged from the lips of Liam Fox, shadow defence secretary. David Cameron, he said, only found out Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom in the last month. That contrasts interestingly with what William Hague told Radio 4 yesterday: "Over the last few months I knew and, after that, of course I was very keen to support him in making that position public." The worst case scenario is that the Tories knew all along, and that these comments are just a desperate attempt to get out of trouble... ... So what's the damage? Firstly, the scandal connects the Tory brand – so lovingly 'decontaminated' by Cameron over the last five years – with a financial scandal, just weeks ahead of a general election. On a more immediate level, it neuters one of Cameron's most common and effective attacks: that Labour is disunited... There are two future events which will define the level of damage the Tories will suffer as a result of this row. One is Sunday. When a story breaks on a Monday and continues to simmer throughout the week, Sunday newspaper journalists have all week to dig up trouble on it. The second is on Thursday March 18th, when the Commons public administration committee launches its inquiry into the matter... ... this is probably the most damaging row Cameron's new-look Tories have faced. It couldn't possibly have come at a worse time, but there's the irony: they should have sorted this years ago. ---more---
04 March 2010 (The Guardian): Lord Ashcroft: the questions the Tories refuse to answer
Can you get them to open up? ...Tories have refused to respond to - these questions are below and have been updated to take Hague's admission into account. What we would like is if you could put our questions, below, to your local Tory MP or candidate and let us know what responses you get, or if they too get ignored. Please email what you find to
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with "Ashcroft questions" (or similar) in the subject field. You can find your Tory MP or candidate and their contact details on the Conservative's website. And here are the questions: - William Hague has now confirmed that he has known about Lord Ashcroft's tax status for a "few months". When exactly did he discover your party's deputy chairman was a non-dom?
- Why did Mr Hague not immediately publicly clarify Lord Ashcroft's status which both he and the peer had previously pledged would be that of a permanent UK resident?
- Did he immediately tell David Cameron about Lord Ashcroft's true status? If not, why not?
- Why did Mr Hague take more than nine years to establish Lord Ashcroft's status when he had personally offered written assurances to both Tony Blair and the honours committee that Ashcroft would become a permanent UK resident and pay "tens of millions a year" in tax as a condition for receiving the peerage?
- Why did Mr Cameron not establish Lord Ashcroft's true status until more than four years after becoming party leader?
04 March 2010 (The Times): A 17th-century power behind the Tory throne The Conservatives want to present a modern face but the shadowy Lord Ashcroft belongs to a different era The ghost of a French monk clad in long grey robes stalks the Tory party. The spectre’s name is François Leclerc du Tremblay, or Father Joseph; he was the shadowy adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, and he died nearly 400 years ago. Father Joseph lives on in our language as the origin of the term éminence grise, the influential counsellor who operates behind the throne, largely unseen, wielding real, although not official, power. Michael Ashcroft is the éminence grise of the Tory Party, the grey eminence whose influence extends deep into Conservative politics but who remains mysterious — and not merely in his tax arrangements. Lord Ashcroft has even referred to himself as a “grey man”... ... Several new Tory MPs are likely to owe their seats to Lord Ashcroft’s donations. This is the politics of the court, of favours, debts and patronage, a word here and a promise there, while Lord Ashcroft himself remains shrouded in vagueness and confusion. If the Tories win, they will owe it in part to his targeting of the marginals, his tactics and his money. He will be more eminent than ever, but no less grey... ... There is the power on the throne, and the power behind the throne. Mr Cameron may yet find he has yielded too much power to the grey man with deep pockets before he has even secured his throne. ---more---
04 March 2010 (Paul Flynn's Blog): Ashcroft to be questioned We will invite the interview-shy Lord Ashcroft to a meeting of the Public Administration Committee (PASC). It would be a discourtesy not to ask him to contribute to the session we will have to investigate the details of his appointment. PASC has an unimpeachable record of political impartiality. We have been thorough in revealing Labour Government wrongdoing when we have discovered it. The Ashcroft affair is central to our work. It has been been raised repeatedly by us, especially by Gordon Prentice the Pendle MP who put in the FOI request three years ago. The session will be in the week after next. Those responsible for approving his appointment will be invited. Originally the appointment committee members had grave doubts whether Ashcroft was a suitable candidate for the Lords because he lived in Berlize. They thought he could not make a worthwhile contribution to Lords work. Clearly there is a problem if the Lord is limited on the numbers of days he is allowed to stay in the UK without having to pay tax. ---more--- 04 March 2010 (New Statesman): World exclusive: Tories may not win the election And Aschroft pressure isn't going away. ... As for the latest Tory mess -- on the non-dom "Lord" Ashcroft -- Andy Burnham is surely right that it is "implausible" that William Hague found out only a "few months" ago about the renegotiation of the terms of his "peerage". Yesterday, some of the reporting made out that Hague had been kept in the dark, but surely the pair, said to share a "special chemistry", are much more intimate than that. Either way -- if Hague took no interest in his patron's tax arrangements or if he sought to mislead in his answer to Radio 4 last night -- the Tories are under pressure, at an unfortunate moment for them... ... Unfortunately for Hague and Cameron, the Ashcroft saga -- the first piece of real luck Brown has had since 2007 -- is not going away fast. ---more--- 03 March 2010 (The Guardian): Was Ashcroft's 'binding' pledge to Hague shown to Inland Revenue?
Ashcroft may not have been entitled to claim non-dom status he has used in order to avoid 10 years of taxes According to the Inland Revenue's rules, Lord Ashcroft may not have been entitled to claim non-dom status he has used in order to avoid 10 years of taxes. At the heart of the issue is whether, in 2000, the tax authorities were misled if they were never shown Ashcroft's "solemn and binding" declaration to his party leader that Britain was henceforth to be his permanent home. According to HM Revenue & Customs published guidelines, current in 2000, this signed and witnessed document alone might have ruled out non-dom status. HMRC's code says plainly: "You are domiciled in the country where you have your permanent home." To successfully change his domicile from the UK, where he was born and brought up, to that of Belize, where he had business interests, Ashcroft would have needed "strong evidence you intend to live there [abroad] permanently or indefinitely". ---more--- 03 March 2010 (The BBC): Lord Ashcroft gave £29,000 to South Dorset Conservative campaign MILLIONAIRE Tory peer Lord Ashcroft has helped bankroll the battle for South Dorset’s marginal constituency seat. A company run by Lord Ashcroft, who ended a decade of speculation by confirming his ‘non-dom’ tax status this week, donated £29,142 to help Conservatives fight the South Dorset seat during the last election. 03 March 2010 (The BBC): Hague 'found out in last few months about Ashcroft' Ex-Tory leader William Hague says he found out in the "last few months" that Lord Ashcroft changed an undertaking he made before being granted a peerage... ... Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, replacing Gordon Brown, challenged Mr Hague, saying: "People who have promised to pay their taxes and given assurances should pay their taxes, and what has happened to the tens of millions of pounds of taxes that the shadow foreign secretary promised would be paid by Lord Ashcroft?" She also said: "The shadow foreign secretary stands here without a shred of credibility." ---more--- 03 March 2010 (The Guardian): Hague only found out about Ashcroft tax deal a few months ago
William Hague says he has only been aware of the Tory deputy chairman's tax status for the last few months and 'was keen to support him in making his position public' William Hague only found out a few months ago that the multimillionaire Tory donor Lord Ashcroft had renegotiated the terms under which took up his place in the House of Lords, the former Conservative leader revealed today. In an interview for BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme, Hague said he only recently discovered the terms of the arrangement that allowed Ashcroft to remain a "non-dom" for tax purposes... ... Hague said: "Well I knew in advance of that." Robin Lustig, the presenter, pressed Hague on exactly when he had found out. Hague replied: "Over the last few months I knew about that and of course I was keen to support him then in making his position public." ---more--- 03 March 2010 (The Guardian): William Hague or Lord Ashcroft should be sacked, says Harriet Harman Harman says David Cameron should sack either Hague or Ashcroft because they cannot both be right about the promises made when Ashcroft received his peerage David Cameron should sack either William Hague or Lord Ashcroft, Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, said today as pressure continued to bear down on the Conservative party over the tax affairs of its deputy chairman. Harman told MPs that either Hague or Ashcroft must go because they could not both be right in relation to what they had said about the promises made when Ashcroft received his peerage in 2000... ... "And then William Hague goes out and says this decision will cost Lord Ashcroft millions of pounds." "The questions are for William Hague. What did he take from the undertakings that were made by Lord Ashcroft? Did he take those undertakings to mean what everybody else took them to mean, which was that Lord Ashcroft would become a permanent resident and therefore be domiciled and resident and paying tax on all his worldwide income in the UK?" "Or were these specially constructed weasel words designed to dissemble and to confuse both Sir Hayden Phillips – who is not a tax expert – and the independent appointments commission for the House of Lords?"... ... According to the Guardian, the chairman of the public honours scrutiny committee, Lord Thomson of Monifieth, told Blair in 1999 that the tax status of Ashcroft "seems central" to the question of whether he should be ennobled. Thomson's widow said last night that her husband, who died in 2008, later regretted eventually giving his approval, as he felt Ashcroft was "not a suitable man to be a peer"... ...Chris Huhne, who estimates that the non-dom status has saved Ashcroft around £127m over 10 years, asked the HMRC chief executive, Lesley Strathie, to investigate whether he should pay any back taxes. The Cabinet Office yesterday said that former clerk to the crown in chancery, Sir Hayden Phillips, had reached an agreement with Tory chief whip, James Arbuthnot, in 2000 about the interpretation of Ashcroft's undertaking, concluding that his promise to take up "permanent residence" meant he would be a "long-term resident" in the UK. ---more--- 03 March 2010 (Anthony Painter's Blog): Just when is a horse dead? How David Cameron would love the Lord Ashcroft story to just move on. And it just won’t. The Times and Guardian responded to the Leader of the Opposition’s desperate desire close this down by putting the story on their front page... ... It seems very clear that he broke the spirit though perhaps not the letter of undertakings he made upon becoming a peer. His influence on British politics over the last decade or so makes a mockery of British democracy. But how to respond? Well, as the image above suggests, the right strategy is don’t get mad, get even. There are three ways you can act to even things up a bit: - Join John Slinger’s Facebook group on Lord Ashcroft.
- Sign John’s e-petition on the peer.
- Make a donation to the Labour party so that they can start to level the playing field in marginal constituencies.
03 March 2010 (The Guardian): Details of Ashcroft's sophisticated target seat operation revealed Tories combining same sort of targeting Labour used in 1997 with extensive YouGov polling of groups as large as 10,000 The level of sophistication behind Lord Ashcroft's "target seat operation" is revealed in an extensive article for Wired magazine, which includes the man once in charge of building up the Tories' new media campaign, Francis Maude, saying he "isn't sure" whether the technology will be ready in time for the election. Ashcroft runs the Conservative party's target seat operation, which the party hopes will secure them the necessary swings within constituencies they need to win even when the view of the whole country may suggest a narrower poll lead, which might result in a hung parliament. ---more---
03 March 2010 (The Times): New questions over Ashcroft tax deal deepen Tory donor row Senior Tories expressed growing unease over the Lord Ashcroft tax saga as new evidence emerged to contradict the billionaire donor’s account of how he became a peer... ... As David Cameron tried in vain to draw a line under the affair yesterday, senior Tories expressed surprise at the revelations of Lord Ashcroft’s non-dom status. One said that the peer, who has helped to organise and bankroll the Conservatives’ election campaign, had used “smoke and mirrors over a long period of time”. Another said that previous party leaders had adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach... ... Lord Thomson of Monifieth, chairman of the political honours scrutiny committee, explained in a letter dated March 22, 2000, that Michael Ashcroft was being turned down for a second time over doubts about his return to Britain. If he gave assurances about an “irrevocable” decision, “carrying with it messages about availability and status as a UK taxpayer”, that would go a long way towards meeting their concern. Just 24 hours later Mr Ashcroft delivered a signed and witnessed statement to Mr Hague giving his “solemn and binding” undertaking to take up permanent residence in the UK. ---more--- 03 March 2010 (The Herald): Will Ashcroft’s money put paid to electorate’s wishes? So, to paraphrase a dozen old jokes, where did it all go wrong for Lord Ashcroft, the footloose billionaire, Tory power-broker and citizen of sun-kissed Belize? The peer, it seems, is one of those rich patriots who would do anything for Britain apart from live here like the rest of us. He sits in the legislature of a country to which he pays only minimal taxes. He directs and funds a key part of a Conservative election campaign in that country. And he spends the best part of a decade evading questions about the palpable conflict between his status and his political role. Is David Cameron happy with all of that? If his actions, or rather his inaction, are any guide, he manages to live with his distress. Merciless with back-benchers who helped themselves to the Commons petty cash, the Tory leader has accepted over £4m for the party (of a £10m running total) from the non-domiciled “long-term resident” peer. As deputy chairman, meanwhile, Ashcroft has been subsidising and guiding candidates in so-called battleground seats. That part is important. The Tories and their friends are telling themselves to ignore recent national opinion polls with their tale of declining fortunes. The election will be won, they say, in marginal seats, where the polling evidence (much of it paid for by Ashcroft) is reportedly more positive, and where the candidates (bankrolled by Ashcroft) are vastly more optimistic... ... But Ashcroft, the democrat of no fixed abode, is not content with denying the connection between taxation and representation. He adds a further political insight. Namely this: most of us don’t matter... ... money counts, but millions of voters do not. Ashcroft is entitled to legislate while those millions are denied any useful say in the choice of legislature. And this, in Britain, passes for normal. ---more--- 03 March 2010 (Jamie Reed's Blog): The Billionaire from Belize Remarkable. It’s taken ten years to extract this admission. Every British taxpayer should now be asking “why?” Moreover, the question should be put to David Cameron every time he steps foot in front of a camera. What did he know? When did he know it? What did he do about it? ... ... Chris Huhne has suggested that Ashcroft’s behaviour - either unknown to or ignored by three successive Tory leaders including Cameron - has resulted in him avoiding the payment of approximately £120m in taxes to the Exchequer. The Exchequer, by the way, is you and me. This isn’t just a knock-about partisan political issue – this is a genuine scandal. Why? Because tax avoidance costs my constituents jobs. It costs them core public services and this doesn’t just affect their lives, but their entire life chances... ... It gets worse. So has Ashcroft deliberately avoided paying approximately £120m in taxes? Has he then used that money to fund Tory campaigns in marginal seats? Is it possible that the current Party leader didn’t know about this? We should be told. The public has a right to know. Only a fraction of the detail has yet emerged... this could yet make the expenses scandal look like a tea party. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (Paul Flynn's Blog): Ten years of tax avoidance The Tories attempt to divert attention from the confession of Lord Ashcroft is a crude ploy. My friend Gordon Prentice deserves an accolade for his persistence in pursuing the elusive Lord. It was three years ago that Gordon put his FOI request. Not a week has gone by since when he has not raised the issue. He has apologised to fellow members of our Select Committee on the need to constantly demand a simple answer to his repeated question. Instead of paying tens of millions of pounds in tax-money that could have helped pay for schools and hospitals - Lord Ashcroft chose to spend the money on David Cameron's campaign instead. Instead of paying fair taxes, like everyone else, he has been channelling millions into the Conservative Party to help them buy this election. Those glossy leaflets in Tory campaigns in marginals have come at the cost of a new school or a new hospital wing. After ten years of denial the Tories have gone to ground tonight. No wonder after Grace Thompson, the widow of the man who agreed the peerage, has said that her husband would have been angry at today's revelations. The Tories cannot bury the issue. There is the small matter of unpaid tax of perhaps a £100 million pounds to be repaid. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Independent): Gordon Prentice: Ashcroft has fallen into line, and a wrong has been righted We’ve had a decade of deception, and Cameron has been complicit in it Michael Ashcroft has now admitted he is a non-dom. Yes, he pays UK tax, but only on his UK income, not on his vast worldwide wealth. Millions that should have gone to the Inland Revenue have been channelled into the key marginals such as my own in Pendle that will decide the next election. It is not just that Ashcroft provided the money. He has formulated and directed the strategy too – setting out a game plan on how to win the swing constituencies by a sustained, long-term campaign running over years, not weeks or months. An outpouring of propaganda has engulfed my Pendle constituency for years: full-colour tabloid newspapers – "Pendle Matters" – delivered by the Royal Mail to all 37,000 households; surveys; leaflets. Funded by a tax exile. Ashcroft was determined to buy the next election as he had already bought the Tory party... ... The Conservatives can start to make amends by paying back the Ashcroft millions – not to the man himself, who doesn't need it, but to the Revenue and Customs, who do. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (Lancashire Telegraph): Pendle MP Gordon Prentice: Lord Ashcroft ‘should resign’ A MAJOR backer of the Tory General Election campaign should resign after admitting he did not pay tax on the majority of his UK income, Pendle’s MP hags said. Lord Ashcroft, the Conservatives’ deputy chairman, has bankrolled his party’s bid to secure the Nelson, Colne and West Craven seat to the tune of £50,000 to £60,000... ... Last year the Lancashire Telegraph revealed that Lord Ashcroft was supporting the parliamentary campaign of Colne-based Conservative Andrew Stephenson. Mr Prentice claimed the peer was trying to ‘buy’ the next election, claims which Mr Stephenson condemned as ‘insulting’. But it did emerge that the Conservative candidate was receiving between £50,000 and £60,000 for party work in the constituency through Ashcroft’s Bearwood Corporate Services. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Independent): Leading article: A saga that reflects badly on the Conservative Party David Cameron should have stood up to Lord Ashcroft long ago At last we have an answer to one of the nagging questions of British politics. Lord Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and its biggest donor, released a statement yesterday revealing that he is a "non-domiciled" resident of the UK. What this means is that Lord Ashcroft pays UK tax on his British earnings, but not on his income from abroad. The Tory leadership expressed the hope yesterday that this will draw a line under the whole bothersome saga of Lord Ashcroft's tax status. Alas, this is wishful thinking. For one thing, when Mr Ashcroft was made a peer in 2000 on the condition that he became a UK resident, there was no mention of the curious half-in half-out status of the "non-dom". Rather, the implication was that Mr Ashcroft would become a full British citizen and a full UK taxpayer. Lord Ashcroft now claims he struck a deal with the Government a decade ago that his "long-term residency" as a non-dom would fulfil the requirement that he take up "permanent residency" in Britain. This seems rather a stretch. And even if Lord Ashcroft's arrangements fit the letter of the 2000 agreement, they are hardly living up to the spirit of it. Moreover, if becoming a non-dom was an entirely honourable course for Lord Ashcroft, why does he now apparently plan to become a full resident? ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Times): Lord Ashcroft's secret tax deal saved him millions Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman and its most high-profile donor, struck a private deal ten years ago to save himself tax on his overseas income, it emerged yesterday... ... Lord Ashcroft disclosed that he negotiated the previously unknown deal within months of telling William Hague, then the Tory leader, that he would take up permanent residence in the UK. At the time Mr Hague said that the decision would “benefit the Treasury tens of millions a year in tax”. Instead, Lord Ashcroft reopened the terms of the deal in a private dialogue with government officials and won agreement that he should be considered “a long-term resident”. It has meant that for the past ten years he has declared his UK income but not his overseas income to the taxman. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Times): Lord Ashcroft revels in his notoriety and safe seat at the top table ... The 63-year-old businessman, who made his billion from slot machines, security and contract cleaning, began his journey to the heart of Tory politics when the party was at its lowest ebb... ... Mr Cameron believed that he had, in effect, neutralised the “threat” of Lord Ashcroft to his authority... ... Recipients of the extra support to marginal seats were encouraged to thank him personally. Receiving their gratitude, Lord Ashcroft beamed with pleasure. But behind his back at least one female candidate grimaced at what she regarded as humiliating patronage. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Times): Peer Pressure With both his behaviour and his tone, Lord Ashcroft’s dissembling over his tax status has damaged the reputation of the Conservative Party Lord Ashcroft is not just any old political donor. As deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, he has become a significant public figure. Today, his power may be at its peak. His tax status is thus a matter of legitimate public interest. His behaviour in concealing it should be a matter of public concern. The next general election will be won or lost on the battlefield of marginal constituencies. This, even more than sunny Belize, is Lord Ashcroft’s domain. Quite apart from the sums that he has directed into Tory coffers, the peer is personally responsible for the professionalised strategy that will, very possibly, deliver a Conservative victory. His system sets targets for marginal candidates, delivers funding on the basis of those targets being met, and then conducts private polling on their effect... ... Wilfully, or because he simply cannot help himself, he continues to give the impression of holding not only regular British taxpayers but also his own colleagues in contempt. Lord Ashcroft has done much for the power of the Conservative Party, but absolutely nothing for its reputation. He is an effective political force, but an enormous political embarrassment. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Guardian): Mandelson calls for inquiry over Lord Ashcroft tax promises Business secretary is the most senior member of government to call for inquiry into non-dom Tory peer Lord Mandelson has called for an inquiry to establish whether Lord Ashcroft broke the promises he made when he was ennobled in 2000 to become a full UK taxpayer. The business secretary wrote to Lord Jay, chair of the House of Lords appointments commission, last night urging him to investigate Ashcroft's claims he had fulfilled his promise to become a UK resident after the government confirmed becoming a "long-term" resident instead of a "permanent" resident would suffice. Mandelson is the most senior member of the government to call for an inquiry into the peer. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Guardian): Michael Ashcroft: Why Tories could not afford to fall out with their 'foul-weather friend' Party high command left with no choice but to defend tax status of donor despite severe private misgivings about his role ... "It was a very simple choice," one senior Tory said. "It was much better to have Michael inside the tent pissing out rather than outside the tent pissing in."... ... Candidates in marginal constituencies live in fear of Ashcroft and his two key aides, Stephen Gilbert and Gavin Barwell, who fund their campaigns along business lines. ---more---
02 March 2010 (Montreal Gazette [Canada]): Tory donor says he lives offshore for tax reasons A major donor to the opposition Conservatives said yesterday he was not based in Britain for tax purposes, an admission that could damage the party at a time of declining poll ratings and with an election looming. Questions about the tax status of businessman Michael Ashcroft, the deputy party chairman who has donated millions of pounds, have dogged the Conservatives for a decade and provided the ruling Labour party with a line of attack. ---more--- 02 March 2010 (The Peninsular [Qatar]): UK opposition downplays shrinking election lead amid donor tax row LONDON: British opposition leader David Cameron sought yesterday to downplay his party’s shrinking poll lead ahead of a looming general election, but faced a fresh row over the tax status of a key donor. Ahead of a ballot expected on May 6, the race between Cameron’s Conservatives and Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party has narrowed sharply, with one poll on Sunday putting the Conservatives just two points ahead... ... Ashcroft pledged to take up permanent residence in Britain after time spent abroad in the United States and Belize, where he grew up. Straw said paying British tax on all his earnings was part of that deal. “Today Lord Ashcroft has been forced to admit that he has not complied with this promise and that for the last ten years the Conservatives have been concealing the truth,” he said. “Instead of paying tax in the UK on all his earned income, he has been channelling millions into the Conservative Party to help them buy this election.” ---more--- 01 March 2010 (Financial Times): Further Reading - An Ashcroft special Lord Ashcroft admits he is a “non-dom” The announcement is a victory for Labour backbencher Gordon Prentice, who has consistently demanded more information about Ashcroft’s tax status ---more--- 01 March 2010 (Sky News): Top Tory Donor Admits He Is A 'Non-Dom' Top Tory donor and party chairman Lord Ashcroft has revealed he is a "non-dom" but says he will give up that status. The disclosure comes ahead of the publication of information about Lord Ashcroft's status by the Cabinet Office... ...Labour MP Gordon Prentice, who applied to the Information Commissioner to reveal details of the undertaking Lord Ashcroft gave when he was being considered for a peerage, called on him to resign. On his blog, he wrote: "Michael Ashcroft is a complete fraud. "This morning, before the release of Cabinet Office information to me, he tells the world that he is a non dom. "He admits that he has paid UK taxes only on his UK income - not on his huge worldwide income. "The man who is bankrolling the Conservatives has dissembled for a decade. He should resign from the House of Lords." ---more--- 01 March 2010 (The BBC): Lord Ashcroft admits 'non-dom' tax status Conservative donor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he does not pay UK tax on earnings outside Britain. His statement ends years of questions from opponents about whether he was "non-domiciled" in the UK for tax... ... Labour's Jack Straw accused the Tories of "concealing the truth" for 10 years. The Lib Dems said the Tories had been "bought like a banana republic"... ... He has donated more than £4m to the party in recent years, much of which has been spent on campaigns by Tory candidates in marginal seats. ---more---
01 March 2010 (The BBC): The truth about Lord Ashcroft's taxes At last. The truth is out. The man who's bankrolled the Tories for much of the past decade and has consistently refused to answer questions about his tax status has finally come clean. Michael Ashcroft is a "non-dom" - in other words he's not been paying British taxes on his non-UK earnings throughout the time he's been central to the Conservatives campaigning. Why, some will ask, does this matter? The answer is that Ashcroft is one of the biggest ever donors to a political party. Not only that but he now sits at the centre of the Tory election campaign directing his own, as well as other people's, money into a carefully targeted effort to win the marginal seats. ---more--- 01 March 2010 (Channel 4 News): Ashcroft is a bigger story than the Tories might like
Lord Ashcroft has today admitted that at the moment he’s a non-dom paying no taxation here on his non-UK earnings even as he tries to win the election for the Conservative party. It’s the reality just about everyone thought lurked behind the wall of silence on this issue which Lord Ashcroft had effectively decreed. It had put Tories, especially David Cameron, in the position of looking weak and cowed by the man who rejoices in his Bond villain image and who bankrolled the party through some lean years and now masterminds the marginals fight as party deputy chairman. There were senior Tories who thought his insistence on silence over his tax status was pretty self-indulgent... ... So this is a bigger story than the Tories, trying to rally the party and regain a wider poll lead, might like. ---more--- 01 March 2010 (The Guardian): Lord Ashcroft reveals: I am a non-dom
Lord Ashcroft, the multimillionaire deputy chairman of the Conservative party, today confirmed for the first time that he is a "non-dom" and does not pay tax on his earnings abroad in the UK. His confirmation puts to rest a decade of speculation about his tax status and raises serious questions for the Conservative party, which has been part of cross-party moves to ban non-doms from parliament. ---more---
01 March 2010 (The Daily Mail): Tory peer Lord Ashcroft finally admits he's a non-dom and agrees to pay tax - but only if Cameron wins power Tory peer Lord Ashcroft faced calls to quit the Lords today after finally admitting he is still a 'non-dom' for tax purposes. The Tory deputy chairman was branded a 'tax dodger' and accused of being 'unpatriotic' after ending months of speculation by coming clean about his tax status. ---more--- 01 March 2010 (The Gloucester Citizen): Tory party targets Cheltenham
The Conservative party has ploughed tens of thousands of pounds into winning votes in Cheltenham – after identifying the town as a must-win General Election seat. With little more than two months to go until the expected poll date, large sums of cash have been injected to make sure they seize the marginal seat from the Liberal Democrats. ---more--- 01 March 2010 (politics.co.uk): Lib Dems demand action to prevent Ashcroft money 'tainting election' The investigation into Michael Ashcroft's donations must be completed soon or it could taint the entire general election campaign, the Liberal Democrats have warned. The Electoral Commission is currently conducting an inquiry into donations made to the Tory party by Bearwood Corporate Services, an Ashcroft company which is expected to wrap up after the election. But home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has written to the Commission today demanding they publish their report before the election. ---more--- 01 March 2010 (Dari Taylor's Blog): Lord Ashcroft's tax status Stockton South has faced a barrage of Conservative leaflets encouraging people to vote for their local candidate. It is widely known that Lord Ashcroft, who today revealed he is a ‘non-dom’ for tax purposes, bank-rolls key seats. Reacting to today’s news, Dari Taylor MP for Stockton South said: ‘It is shocking that the Conservative Party allow the multi-millionaire Lord Ashcroft to play such a central role in their campaign. He is Deputy-Chairman of the Conservative Party and their most influential donor, yet he avoids paying tax in the UK, money which could be spent on vital public services. Instead, he chooses to spend millions of pounds attempting to buy votes, bombarding households with regular and unwanted junk mail about the Conservatives. ---more--- 01 March 2010 (Dan Rogerson's Blog): “Non-dom” donations a scandal – Rogerson Local MP, Dan Rogerson has branded the Conservative Party’s use of donations from ‘non-doms’ “a scandal”. Lord Ashcroft – the multimillionaire deputy chairman of the Conservative Party – this week confirmed for the first time that he does not pay tax on his earnings abroad in the UK... ... “Ashcroft’s marginal seats programme is the most concerted attempt since the rotten boroughs were abolished in 1832 to make our democracy more about bank notes than it is about residents’ votes. ---more--- Pre Confession... 28 February 2010 (The Daily Mail): Cabinet officials told to come clean on Tory peer Lord Ashcroft's tax status The Tories were today accused of being 'evasive' over the tax status of the party's controversial deputy chairman, billionaire Lord Ashcroft. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has given the Cabinet Office 35 days to end the secrecy over a pledge by the peer to become a UK resident 10 years ago. In his ruling, he sharply criticised the Conservatives, who have rejected calls to reveal whether Lord Ashcroft has kept his word, citing his right to privacy. The commissioner condemned 'evasive and obfuscatory' comments on the issue, in an apparent jibe at David Cameron was has refused to be drawn about it. 'Since Lord Ashcroft's ennoblement, the question of where he lives has continued to be raised leading to speculation that Lord Ashcroft has not satisfied the undertaking he gave,' the ruling said... ... The ruling follows a three-year campaign under the Freedom of Information Act by Labour MP Gordon Prentice. Mr Graham said the public interest in transparency in the honours system outweighed the Cabinet Office's claim that disclosure would be 'unwarranted and prejudicial to the rights and legitimate interests' of Lord Ashcroft. ---more---
28 February 2010 (The Mirror): £6m ON MARGINALS The full extent of controversial Tory Lord Ashcroft's plan to buy the election has been revealed in figures showing a £6million cash injection for target seats. Belize-based Michael Ashcroft, who refuses to say if he pays tax in Britain, is helping the Tories plough millions into campaigns in swing constituencies. The peer has given the party over £5million since 2003 through a firm called Bearwood Corporate Services. ---more--- 27 February 2010 (The Independent): 'Ashcroft money' casts long shadow over rivals Andy McSmith visits the constituencies the Conservatives have lavished with cash ... Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs in marginal constituencies have been increasingly alarmed by the amount of money the Conservatives are lavishing on winning these crucial contests that could decide who governs Britain for the next five years. That money is being directed into local Tory associations by a small unit based in Conservative Central Office, headed by a billionaire Tory peer who is notoriously shy about declaring whether or not he pay taxes in the UK. The Ashcroft money, as it is loosely called, could even be the secret ingredient that enables the Tories to turn the forthcoming election from score draw to outright victory. The sums are impressive... ... The "Ashcroft money" is the fund he controls, which shows up on association accounts as grants from Conservative headquarters. One of the most generous is the annual grant invested in the Pendle Conservative Association, which in 2007 was £19,375, about 40 per cent of the association's total income for that year. Pendle's Labour MP, Gordon Prentice, has conducted a relentless campaign to try to unearth whether Lord Ashcroft is a UK taxpayer, as he promised he would be when awarded his peerage 10 years ago. But Mr Prentice will probably be unseated at the general election and replaced by Andrew Stephenson, a 29-year-old insurance broker who identifies himself as an out and out Tory moderniser, in the Cameron mould. Labour's majority in Pendle is a slender 2,180. In 2008, the Tories spent a total of more than £82,700 in this one seat, around four times as much as the Labour Party. Mr Stephenson insists that Lord Ashcroft's real contribution in seats like this is not the money he personally contributes, but the discipline he imposes by compelling local associations to draw up business plans before they are awarded grants. That makes the candidates and their local associations think ahead and work out better ways to raise their own funds... ... Alan Hargreaves, a landlord who owns five properties in Colne, in the centre of Pendle constituency, said: "We've been regularly getting all these glossy brochures all from – what's he called? – Stephenson, the would-be MP for this area. We had a horrible flurry of activity in support of someone in a local election. It looked to me like Conservative Central Office stuff. It wasn't even very subtle." Some people think – or hope - that the sheer volume of Tory literature flooding into their constituencies will set off a voter reaction. Alan Newboult, a devout Labour voter living in a rural part of Pendle, said: "After a while people get fed up with what they see as political propaganda. I talk to people in the pubs and the cafés and they feel that the Tories are trying to buy the seat." That is probably a vain hope. In politics, as in everything else, money counts, and the Tories have a great deal of money, being shrewdly put to use by a billionaire whose tax status is one of Westminster's closest secrets. ---more--- 27 February 2010 (The Independent): Leading article: How money can distort the democratic process The Tories' use of Lord Ashcroft's millions raises profound questions ... it is not simply the amounts of cash which give cause for concern. There are issues of propriety; Lord Ashcroft continues to refuse to answer the question as to whether he pays tax in Britain and whether his companies are legally eligible to make donations to a political party. There are issues of transparency too; the Tories were singled out this week by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare the money it had received on time... Yet what should worry Labour most, though, is not Lord Ashcroft's cash but the canniness with which he has been directing the big influx of Tory money. He has not just targeted swing seats but has crunched demographic data to identify key wards and then relentlessly bombarded them with leaflets, canvassers and hundreds of billboard posters dominated by the infamously airbrushed photographs of David Cameron in an advertising blitz that Labour simply could not match. Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs with small majorities have found themselves up against weekly Tory newsletters, ads in local newspapers, telephone surveys to sound out the individual concerns of voters, followed up by targeted mailshots. ... In 2005 Lord Ashcroft bankrolled 25 of the 33 Tories who took seats from Labour and the Lib Dems. He spent so much cash that in places voters were each sent an individual DVD featuring the Tory candidate. ---more---
27 February 2010 (The Independent): Ashcroft's election war-chest targets marginals Investigation by The Independent reveals Tory donor's strategy to clinch election win The Tories have spent £6m over two years in the parliamentary seats that hold the key to general election victory, an investigation by The Independent has found. A drive for votes masterminded, and largely funded, by the Conservative deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, has seen party headquarters pump more than £1.1m into the coffers of constituency parties in Britain's most marginal seats... ... One cabinet minister told The Independent yesterday: "The Tories have already poured millions into the marginal seats. It is bound to have an effect."... ... Lord Ashcroft is both in charge of, and substantially bankrolls, Tory campaigning in many marginal seats. A company he controls has given £4.7m in gifts to the Conservatives. The donations are being investigated by the Electoral Commission. ---more--- 26 February 2010 (Nelson Leader/Colne Times): MP's new clause on reform Bill backed by 77 MPs PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice is making a further attempt to force the Conservative vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft to reveal the terms of the undertaking he gave 10 years ago as a condition of being elevated to the peerage on the recommendation of the then party leader, William Hague. ---more--- 26 February 2010 (The Guardian): David Cameron prepares for hung parliament as lead narrows Conservatives create a new strategy unit amid fears that the party will not win outright at the general election ... The Tories also face fresh pressure over whether their billionaire donor and deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, breached funding rules... ... The investigation, which began 18 months ago, is into donations from a company owned by Ashcroft, Bearwood Corporate Services. The key question is whether Bearwood was operating as a fully functioning business at the time the donations were made... ... the legality of the general election result could be called into question if £5m in donations to the Tory party via Bearwood – including £80,000 in sponsorship revealed this week – are ruled illegal. Ashcroft will come under separate pressure on two fronts this week to reveal details of his tax status. Some 78 MPs from the Labour and Liberal Democrat benches are backing an amendment by Labour's Gordon Prentice to the constitutional reform and governance bill, which reaches report stage in the house next week. It would force any peer, whose elevation to the Lords was conditional, to reveal whether they have met the terms of the agreement. Ashcroft undertook to become resident in the UK – including paying tax – when he received his peerage in 2000, but refuses to say whether he has fulfilled that promise. Spokesmen for both the Electoral Commission and Ashcroft refused to comment on the ongoing investigation. ---more---
25 February 2010 (The Law Society Gazette): Freedom of information: exemptions and vetoes The tax status of the Conservative Party’s major donor and deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, has been the subject of much controversy and media headlines over the past few years. Lord Ashcroft gave an undertaking to the government in March 2000 to end his status as a tax exile, or ‘non-dom’, when he was awarded a life peerage. This undertaking was the subject of a recent Freedom of Information Act (FoI) request to the Cabinet Office by a Labour MP. Gordon Prentice requested disclosure of the form in which the undertaking by Lord Ashcroft was given, and the identity of the person to whom it was given. The Cabinet Office confirmed that it held the information, but determined that it should be withheld, relying on the exemptions contained in sections 37(1)(b) (the conferring of honours), 40(2) (personal data) and 41 (breach of confidence) of the act. All these exemptions require consideration of the public interest in disclosure. The information commissioner (Cabinet Office Ref: FS50197952 28/01/2010 ) decided that the Cabinet Office was wrong to rely on the exemptions. He ruled that there was a legitimate public interest in knowing whether Lord Ashcroft has fulfilled the undertaking. In the commissioner’s view, the public interest in transparency in the honours system outweighed the Cabinet Office’s claim that disclosure would be ‘unwarranted and prejudicial to the rights and legitimate interests’ of Lord Ashcroft. This is an interesting case, not just because of its political angle in the year of an election, but because the commissioner has ruled that personal data are disclosable under FoI to a third party, even though this could not be requested by Lord Ashcroft himself by making a subject access request (under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)). This is due to the exemption in the DPA for personal data processed for the purpose of ‘the conferring by the Crown of any honour’ (schedule 7 of the DPA). ---more---
23 February 2010 (The Guardian): Bankers' promises of self-imposed exile were empty – but I could help The Conservative party's most persistent embarrassment is the hazy tax status of its deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft. Ashcroft received his peerage in 2000 after promising that he would become a UK taxpayer. Since then a succession of senior Tories has been quizzed by the media about whether he has redeemed this promise or is still registered in Belize, and they have writhed like hooked eels. Though this issue could explode as the election approaches, neither Ashcroft nor the party have yet produced an answer. This gives us a pretty good idea of what it must be, and of where the party's priorities lie. ---more---
19 February 2010 (The Guardian): Hugh Muir's Diary Andrew Marr couldn't do it. Neither could Jeremy Paxman. And if David Cameron has done it, he is certainly not letting on. So what chance that the public will be able to prise from Lord Ashcroft an answer to whether he pays his whack of tax in this country or basks in the status of a non-dom? Slim, perhaps, but the push is gaining momentum on Facebook, where more than 1,000 people have now signed up to the site Transparency now on Lord Ashcroft's Tax Status. Ordinary types have signed up, along with stellar names such as Alastair Campbell and Chris Huhne. As part of a pincer movement, an e-petition has also been launched and that has attracted 600 signatures in just over a week. Our politics is broken, David Cameron is prone to say. What a chance to start mending it. ---more--- 16 February 2010 (Left Foot Forward): Facebook group on Lord Ashcroft’s tax status piles on the pressure The Information Commissioner recently described the Conservatives as “evasive and obfuscatory” over Lord Ashcroft’s tax status, so it wasn’t surprising that shadow chancellor George Osborne and shadow communities secretary Eric Pickles sounded increasingly flustered this weekend as they tried to hold the line that Lord Ashcroft’s tax affairs are solely a matter for him. ... ... The group has spawned a petition stating that the Conservative Party should reveal the tax status of Lord Ashcroft. More than 600 have signed in a week.
The Tories are vulnerable on this issue because it goes to the heart of voters’ doubts about the true agenda of David Cameron and his lieutenants. Scratch beneath the surface and there are rich seams (excuse the pun) which Labour can use to expose Tory hypocrisy on some of the most fundamental issues of our age. ---more---
15 February 2010 (Mirror): CHICKEN GEORGE Osborne's asked about Ashcroft FIVE times.. and fails to answer
Tory George Osborne dodged questions about party donor Michael Ashcroft five times in a TV interview yesterday.
The shadow chancellor repeatedly refused to state whether he knows if the Conservatives' deputy chairman pays tax in Britain. ...
... Former deputy PM John Prescott said yesterday: "Osborne's failure to be aware of Ashcroft's tax status is turning a blind eye to a rich Tory donor who wields enormous power.
"This possible future Chancellor has shown, along with his commitment to give breaks to the richest 3,000 estates, that the Tories are there to help the few, not the many." ---more---
14 February 2010 (BBC): Tory Osborne's anger over Ashcroft tax status quizzing Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has insisted Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs are a matter for him and accused the media of bias in asking about them.... Lord Ashcroft has donated millions of pounds to the Conservatives in recent years, much of which has been spent on campaigns by Tory candidates in marginal seats.
But his donations are the subject of an Electoral Commission investigation over claims the company through which they were made - Bearwood Corporate Services - is in breach of electoral law for not "carrying on business" in Britain. ---more--- 14 February 2010 (Daily Mail): Now top Tories admit they are frustrated about not knowing Lord Ashcroft's tax status Senior Tories today revealed their frustration over Lord Ashcroft's tax status - as pressure mounts on the Tory donor to come clean over his finances. Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles has admitted that he had no idea what the peer's tax status and indicated that he was irritated by the secrecy surrounding it.
Meanwhile, shadow Chancellor George Osborne also appeared visibly frustrated about the ongoing controversy surrounding Lord Ashcroft during a bad-tempered television interview today. ...
... Mr Osborne appeared exasperated when he was repeatedly asked about Lord Ashcroft during an interview on Sky News' Sunday Live. ---more---
14 February 2010 (The Observer): Tory top brass frustrated by mystery over Michael Ashcroft's tax status Pressure mounts from Labour and Liberal Democrats The Conservative party chairman, Eric Pickles, has revealed his frustration over Lord Ashcroft's tax status, as pressure grows on the party to come clean over the peer's finances.
In an interview to be broadcast tomorrow, Pickles admits that he does not know the financial arrangements of the peer, who has funded the party's campaigns in dozens of marginal seats and is also a deputy party chairman.
Asked if Ashcroft was a "non-dom" – someone who pays UK tax only on their earnings in this country – Pickles says he is in the dark on the issue: "I'm not in a position to be able to tell you."
Pickles also hints that he is irritated by the secrecy surrounding Ashcroft and the constant media demands for clarity. "I do not know what his tax status is. If I did, I would certainly tell you," he says.
Asked to comment on recent comments from the information commissioner, who has accused the Tories of "obfuscatory" answers on Ashcroft, Pickles says: "I was very alarmed by that. We have gone back to check what more we could do."
But he stops short of saying that his deputy should be more open. "That's a matter for him to consider. Lord Ashcroft is entitled to his privacy," Pickles tells Evening Standard journalist Anne McElvoy for a Radio 4 documentary on the future of party funding. ---more--- 14 February 2010 (Financial Times): Architect of election strategy Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy party chairman and architect of the party's electorally crucial marginal seats strategy, remains a deeply contentious figure, writes Jean Eaglesham. ---more---
14 February 2010 (The Independent): The Tories and the tycoon: Why Ashcroft is costing Cameron dear His millions could swing scores of marginal seats, but the Conservatives' refusal to answer a simple question about his finances undermines their claim to the moral high ground... A single tycoon could have a decisive impact on the result of the most closely fought election for almost two decades. It has already paid dividends. While the Tories' poll lead has been narrowing for a month, the gap remains healthier in the key marginals which will ultimately dictate who wins.
Cue anguished complaints from mainly Labour MPs – including many who survived the first Ashcroft onslaught – as their opponents outspend them massively even before the general election campaign officially begins, at a time when spending is not legally restricted. Their constituencies have already been "carpet-bombed" with extra leaflets, billboards, surveys and Tory magazines. In the bear pit of the House of Commons last week, Pendle's Labour MP, Gordon Prentice, who fears his seat is being swamped by up to £250,000 in support from Lord Ashcroft (only £82,000 of it officially registered), warned the Prime Minister that "the next election in my constituency is being bought by a tax exile". He added: "Does he agree that he needs me here, and that Pendle is not for sale?" ---more---
13 February 2010 (The Times): Just a better class of stink in the Upper House The expenses scandal is clearing out the Commons, but upstairs it’s still ermine, crested notepaper and jobs for ever
... Although their lordships have at least provided some good laughs this week. First up, the Tory top team taking turns to answer the same yes/no question — does Lord Ashcroft pay tax in Britain? — with a rich variety of contradictions. The potential embarrassment, however, isn’t the suspicion that Lord Ashcroft is not domiciled here despite his promises to the Conservatives, but that they are gagging for his juicy donations. They see his help as crucial in the battle for marginal seats. ---more---
12 February 2010 (The Guardian): Tories target Scottish revival Party aims to win 11 seats as opinion polls suggest it could gain up to five
The Conservatives are targeting a series of seats in Scotland at the general election as they attempt to a drought that began when they lost every Scottish MP in the 1997 election. The Tories – currently holding only one of 59 Scottish seats at Westminster – have targeted 11 seats across central and southern Scotland, and the nationalist heartland of its north-east. ...
... The Conservative focus on this small list of target seats has renewed questions about their reliance on its multimillionaire donors, including the party treasurer Lord Ashcroft, who is thought to have given at least £5m to the party – money that has been heavily directed towards key Tory target seats.
Michael Gove, the Tory frontbench spokesman on children, schools and family at Westminster, failed to dampen speculation that Ashcroft was still non-domiciled for tax purposes, despite promising in 2000 that he would move back to Britain and become a UK taxpayer after entering the House of Lords.
Interviewed on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland, Gove was pressed three times to confirm that Ashcroft was now resident in the UK, but refused to answer the question...
... Scottish Tories refused to confirm whether Ashcroft's donations had funded their constituency campaigns. ---more---
11 February 2010 (Left Foot Forward): Cameron’s MEPs vote against reforms to clamp down on tax dodgers David Cameron’s MEPs last night voted against proposals to crack down on “those seeking to hide their money from the tax authorities” – tax dodgers.
In voting against the Domenici report on “Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters 2009/2174(INI)”, Cameron’s MEPs sought to prevent the automatic exchange of tax information across borders.
The motion, however, was passed overwhelmingly – 553:93 ---more---
09 February 2010 (The Guardian): Question the Tories still won't answer: does Lord Ashcroft pay tax in Britain? [This is an update to the article published on 08Feb2010 mentioned below. There is now a catalog of Tories evading questions about Ashcroft's tax status.] ---more--- 09 February 2010 (The Times): Baffled students watch Dave try to hijack their generation ...Dave kept explaining how only he and the Tories could fix our broken politics. Later he was asked if he could — finally — tell us the tax status of the Tory party donor Lord Ashcroft. But Dave who, only minutes ago was a beacon of new generational transparency and openness, could not tell us. Not only that, he could not tell us why he could not tell us. It made the whole speech seem, like a two-headed snake, at odds with itself. ...---more--- 08 February 2010 (The Guardian): Lord Ashcroft: does he pay tax in Britain? Conservative mandarins still refuse to answer questions on party benefactor's UK tax status Conservative party officials repeatedly refused to say today whether they believe the British public has any right to know the truth about the current tax status of Lord Ashcroft, the multi-millionaire who has helped bankroll the party for almost three decades. Ashcroft, a deputy chairman of the party, was granted a seat in the Lords in March 2000 after promising to return to the UK from his home in Belize and pay UK income tax by the end of that year. Since then, the tycoon has repeatedly declined to say if he has made good on that promise, and senior Tories have faced censure from the information commissioner for what he describes as their "evasive and obfuscatory" statements on the matter. ... ... Last month, the information commissioner ruled that the Cabinet Office had breached the act by refusing to disclose information about Ashcroft's promise, made to Labour MP Gordon Prentice, and said it had 35 days in which to do so. ... ... Donations worth millions of pounds made to the Tories from a company controlled by Ashcroft are under investigation by the Electoral Commission over whether the company is eligible to give money. ---more--- 08 February 2010 (The Mirror): PM in blast at cover-up on Tory cash Gordon Brown yesterday launched an angry attack on Tory secrecy surrounding their biggest financial backer. Lord Ashcroft's massive donations would be illegal if he were not registered in the UK for tax purposes. But he refuses to clarify where he is a resident. ... ... Lord Ashcroft's money pays for Conservative propaganda blitzes in key seats. ---more--- 07 February 2010 (The Observer): Gordon Brown attacks 'scandal' of Lord Ashcroft donations Gordon Brown has thrust the issue of Tory party donations to the centre of the election campaign by declaring that the secrecy surrounding its biggest financial backer – Lord Ashcroft – is "a scandal". ... ... Delivering his strongest comments yet on the "Ashcroft question", Brown said it was now the duty of journalists and opposition politicians to "press these people for answers". "It's a scandal that we haven't had proper answers about where the [Ashcroft] money has come from and what the status of this person is." ... ... Over recent months, Labour's high command has left it to the party's backbench MPs to raise questions over Ashcroft, with ministers steering clear of public comment. But Brown's intervention is evidence that Labour, which will enter the election campaign with a far smaller war chest than the Tories, is opening an aggressive new front on the funding issue. ---more--- 07 February 2010 (The Guardian): Belize faces prospect of G20 sanctions over tax information Development could politically embarrass Conservatives, whose donor is chairman of country's biggest bank Belize could be hit with economic sanctions by G20 nations for failing to abide by international tax information sharing protocols. The move could prove uncomfortable to Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative party's largest donor, who is also chairman of the tiny Central American country's biggest bank. ... ... As the chairman of Belize's largest bank, Ashcroft is thought to have benefited from the country's growing prominence as an offshore centre. Ten years ago it had fewer than 4,000 offshore companies listed in its offshore registry. Last year there were more than 20,000. ... ... There are signs that Ashcroft is gaining more influence on Tory policy, accompanying shadow foreign minister William Hague on foreign trips. When granted his peerage in 2000, the Tories' biggest bankroller said he wanted to be known as Lord Ashcroft of Belize. Last week the information commissioner criticised Ashcroft for failing to clarify his tax status in Britain. ---more--- 02 February 2010 (Paul Flynn's Blog): Gordon Prentice moves the earth ... In an unprecedentedly tough recommendation, the Cabinet Office has been ordered to reveal within 35 days the nature of the undertaking Ashcroft made to become domiciled in the UK when he became a peer in 2000. ---more--- 02 February 2010 (The Scotsman): Pressure mounts for Tory backer to reveal tax status THE wealthy Tory backer Lord Ashcroft, right, is under renewed pressure to disclose whether he pays taxes in the UK after the Information Commissioner ruled there was a "legitimate interest" for the public to know. The commissioner, Christopher Graham, gave the Cabinet Office 35 days to release the full details of the undertaking Lord Ashcroft gave concerning his tax status when he was made a Conservative life peer in 2000. The decision followed an appeal by the Labour MP Gordon Prentice under the Freedom of Information Act. ---more--- 02 February 2010 (Channel 4 News): Ashcroft cash targets key marginals
Labour plans to turn Lord Ashcroft's donations to the Conservative party into an election issue, claiming the money is used to target marginal seats. Cathy Newman reports. A Conservative election candidate who is bankrolled by Lord Ashcroft's target seats fund has lifted the lid on the scale of her campaign effort, disclosing that she is delivering 40,000 leaflets a month in a bid to unseat Labour. ---more---
01 February 2010 (New Statesman Blog): High noon for Lord Ashcroft New ruling means the peer's "undertaking" on his tax status will be revealed. The Tories have prevaricated for years over Michael Ashcroft's tax status but their time is running out. The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, has ordered the Cabinet Office to reveal within 35 days the nature of the "undertaking" Ashcroft made to end his tax-exile status when he became a peer. The ruling concludes that the public interest in Ashcroft and his position in the Tory party outweighs any individual right to privacy on the matter. ---more--- 01 February 2010 (The Guardian): Tories evasive over Ashcroft tax status, says watchdog The Conservative leadership is today accused of being "evasive and obfuscatory" over the tax status of Lord Ashcroft, the party's deputy chairman and biggest donor, in a ruling by the information commissioner that sharply criticises the secrecy over where he is resident for tax purposes. The Cabinet Office has been ordered to reveal within 35 days the nature of the undertaking Ashcroft made to become domiciled in the UK when he became a peer in 2000. The move follows an appeal spanning three years through the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) by the Labour MP Gordon Prentice. ... ... The ruling says: "Since Lord Ashcroft's ennoblement, the question of where he lives has continued to be raised, leading to speculation that Lord Ashcroft has not satisfied the undertaking he gave. Statements by senior politicians concerning Lord Ashcroft's undertaking have been evasive and obfuscatory and have served to compound this speculation. "Lord Ashcroft could have ended the speculation about his residency by making a public statement to that effect. He has chosen not to do this. He has furthered the speculation by stating that it is a private matter and, as stated on his website, 'If home is where the heart is Belize is my home'. "In the commissioner's view there is a legitimate interest for the public to know more about Lord Ashcroft's undertaking. This flows from the legitimate public interest in understanding the process by which Lord Ashcroft's peerage was awarded, knowing the details of any conditions placed upon that award and knowing whether Lord Ashcroft has met what appears to have been a condition to his award." Ashcroft has repeatedly refused to clarify his tax status in Britain and is separately subject to an Electoral Commission investigation into claims that millions of pounds of his donations to the Conservatives, made through his company Bearwood Corporate Services, were in breach of electoral law. The allegation is that the company was not "carrying on business" in Britain and therefore not eligible to donate. ---more--- 01 February 2010 (The Independent): Reveal Ashcroft's status, officials told Information czar orders Cabinet to come clean on Tory peer's tax residency Cabinet officials have been told they must end the secrecy surrounding a promise made a decade ago when Michael Ashcroft, the billionaire vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, was awarded a life peerage. ... ... When he was awarded a peerage a year later, on Mr Hague's insistence, Downing Street added an unprecedented caveat that "in order to meet the requirements for a working peer, Mr Michael Ashcroft has given his clear and unequivocal assurance that he will take up permanent residence in the United Kingdom again before the end of the calendar year. He would be introduced into the House of Lords only after taking up that residence". The Labour MP Gordon Prentice has spent more than two years battling to find out to whom Lord Ashcroft gave that promise, and whether it was made verbally or in writing. He submitted a freedom of information request to the Cabinet Office in November 2007 but was told in January 2008 that it had been turned down because it involved "information provided in confidence". Mr Prentice immediately lodged an appeal, which was turned down in March 2008. He then put in a complaint to the Information Commissioner, which has taken nearly two years to process. In his 36-page judgement, the Commissioner also criticised the Cabinet Office over the delays. ---more--- 19 January 2010 (The Guardian): Government under fire for dithering over 'non-dom' bill Labour faces rebellion over plans to prevent those living here but registered abroad for tax reasons from becoming MPs The government was tonight accused of abandoning plans to fast-track a law barring "non-doms" – people living in the UK but registered abroad for tax purposes – from becoming MPs. The Tories, Lib Dems and some backbench Labour MPs have been pressing for the ban to be included in the constitutional reform and governance bill, being debated in parliament this week and next. Each has tabled an amendment which would bar people who don't pay tax in the UK from a place in the House of Commons or the Lords. ... Labour backbenchers, led by the Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, have proposed a different amendment, which would require people to be registered in the UK for tax purposes retrospectively for 10 years, in a move which he said would "flush out" Lord Ashcroft. ... Prentice said: "There's no possibility that it would get through before the election. I'm totally mystified as to why the government refuses to act on this. The government has been dragging its feet." Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, another Labour backbencher, said: "It's not going to happen before the general election. It's a disgrace and an outrage where we have an open goal and cross- party support to make this happen. But we're not, we're kicking it into touch."... ---more--- 30 December 2009 (The Independent): Tories trying to buy power, says Straw Justice Secretary attacks Conservatives for relying on billionaire Lord Ashcroft David Cameron is today accused by a senior Cabinet minister of attempting to "buy" victory at the general election with a US-style campaign dominated by advertising. Writing in The Independent, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, predicts the Tory campaign will be the most lavish in political history and denounces Mr Cameron for relying heavily on cash supplied by the party's deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, who has extensive business interests in Belize. ---more--- 09 December 2009 (The Independent): Critics round on Hague for staying silent about trip to corrupt isles Shadow Foreign Secretary refuses to disclose reason for his visit to Turks and Caicos William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, was attacked yesterday for refusing to say who he met or what he did during a working visit to the Turks and Caicos Islands a year before widespread corruption was uncovered there. ... After two weeks in which the question was put to Conservative campaign headquarters every few days, a spokesman replied: "We do not provide a running commentary on private meetings that took place almost three years ago. However, it is a matter of public record that Lord Ashcroft occasionally attends meetings in his capacity as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. ... According to an inside source, Lord Ashcroft's office at Conservative campaign headquarters was consulted before the answer to The Independent's question was drawn up. ... Tax accounts: What they say about Ashcroft's status Eric Pickles, the Tory party chairman, is the latest politician to be wrong-footed by Michael Ashcroft's insistence on keeping his affairs private. Last week, Mr Pickles suggested that Lord Ashcroft, who is his deputy chairman, would be "very happy" to go on BBC Radio 4's Today to say whether he is a UK taxpayer. But when the programme invited him to appear, he would not. "We did try to contact him about his tax affairs but we got no further than his spokesman, who said that Lord Ashcroft is a private individual," Today interviewer John Humphrys said. David Cameron and William Hague have also faced questions about whether the billionaire Tory peer pays UK taxes, in line with a promise he made when he was awarded his peerage in 2000. Labour MPs have been raising an increasing number of questions about that promise. One, Gordon Prentice, has called a Commons debate on Monday about the role of the Information Commissioner in requesting the information. Mr Prentice wants the commissioner to order the Government to answer questions about Lord Ashcroft's tax status. ---more--- 27 November 2009 (The Mirror): Tory backer Lord Ashcroft dubbed monster of the Caribbean Billionaire Lord Ashcroft was described as "a monster of the Caribbean" in the Commons yesterday after the Mirror exposed his plans to buy the election for the Tories. Labour MP Denis MacShane demanded an emergency debate over the "corrupt" influence of the Belize-based Tory deputy chairman - who is running a propaganda campaign funded by himself and other wealthy backers. Mr MacShane said our revelations yesterday proved the need for "an early debate on that monster from the Caribbean deep, namely Lord Ashcroft, and his influence on politics". ... What taxes does his company Bearwood Corporate Services pay? Bearwood is being investigated by the Electoral Commission over allegations it is a Tory funding front not a trading company. Labour MPs fear the results will come too late to stop Ashcroft influencing the election result by bombarding voters in marginals with pro-Tory leaflets, magazines and newsletters that are provided using cash funnelled through party accounts. ---more--- 26 November 2009 (The Mirror): How David Cameron is trying to buy the general election David Cameron's attempts to buy the next election with millions of pounds from secretive wealthy backers are today exposed by the Mirror. An investigation found the Conservative leader is using the cash to carpet-bomb voters with expensive propaganda. A study of key seats revealed they are being bombarded with leaflets, magazines, newsletters and surveys promoting Tory candidates paid for out of central party funds. Billionaire Michael Ashcroft, who founded a business empire from Belize, is running the operation in dozens of constituencies. By law, political parties can only take money from people registered to vote in Britain or companies trading here. Although senior Conservatives say they believe Lord Ashcroft now lives and pays tax in the UK, both he and they refuse to confirm that... ...CASH FOR CANDIDATES Pendle - LABOUR MAJORITY: 2,180 Labour MP Gordon Prentice is defending a 2,180 majority. The Tories spent £82,000 campaigning last year, up from less than £25,000 in 2006. More than £35,000 has come from the party HQ. It pays for "Pendle Matters" - a glossy newsletter delivered to most homes every two months. It is filled with pictures of Tory candidate Andrew Stephenson. The newsletter comes on top of regular "In Touch" and "Change" leaflets and a handbagsized Hello-style magazine "Talk" distributed in many Tory seats. Voters have also received glossy Christmas cards and surveys on crime, health and post office closures, with stamped reply envelopes, which are hugely expensive. Donations to the local Conservative Association help cover the cost. Pendle Tories saw gifts double to £15,893 last year. That included £3,000 from the United & Cecil Club, which gave another £1,500 in January. ---more--- 15 November 2009 (The Observer): Electoral watchdog under fire as Lord Ashcroft inquiry threatens to run into election Labour MPs are demanding to know why the Electoral Commission's inquiry into Lord Ashcroft's donations to the Conservative party has dragged on for 10 months Controversy over Lord Ashcroft's donations to the Conservative party deepened last night after Labour MPs demanded an urgent meeting with Britain's elections watchdog. Placing more pressure on the Tories, Labour MPs want to know why the Electoral Commission's official inquiry into an Ashcroft-controlled company, which has given £3m to the party, has dragged on for 10 months and threatens to run into the general election campaign. ... "The Electoral Commission needs to crack on with its investigation into the status of Ashcroft's companies to satisfy itself that all donations are not only legitimate, but transparent as well," he said. "The danger is that the mismatch in resources is tantamount to the Tories trying to buy seats. For democracy's sake, I hope the electorate sees through this." ---more--- 04 November 2009 (The Mirror): Give us plane truth on Tory billionaire’s taxes Billionaire Tory paymaster Michael Ashcroft’s treating voters like mugs by playing dumb. The tycoon who made a fortune in the Central American state of Belize is arguably the second most important figure in the Tory machine after David Cameron. An official title of Deputy Chairman plays down the considerable influence of the mastermind of the campaign to win seats vital to a Conservative victory. He’s investing millions in the party, the travel agent who flies Cameron and other frontbenchers around the world in private jets. A prominent foreign policy role’s predicted if the Cons win after he held William Hague’s hand on a recent jaunt to Washington. Yet we don’t know, and Ashcroft and Cameron won’t say, whether he pays tax in Britain. No taxation without representation was the rallying cry of the American colonists who overthrew Britain in the 18th century. In 21st-century Britain we may be about to experience representation without taxation. We don’t even know if Ashcroft – ennobled as Lord Ashcroft of Chichester nine years ago by a grateful Hague – is registered to vote in local and European elections. Ashcroft won’t tell us. Today there’ll be much shouting and bawling when we re-visit the crime scene that is Westminster expenses with publication of Sir Christopher Kelly’s clean-up plan. Yet Ashcroft’s self-imposed gag is the greater mockery of our enfeebled democracy. ---more--- 01 November 2009 (The Observer): Billionaire donor Lord Ashcroft tipped for top Tory foreign job Billionaire Tory donor Lord Ashcroft was embroiled in fresh controversy last night after it emerged that he accompanied the shadow foreign secretary to key meetings overseas, amid rumours that he will be given a top foreign policy role in a future Conservative government. The Observer can reveal that the peer, who pumps millions of pounds into marginal seats but refuses to say whether he pays tax in Britain, is flying William Hague around the world and went with him on his recent trip to the US, during which Hague met Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and other key US figures. ---more--- 27 September 2009 (The Independent): Meet the new media mogul: why Tories fear Lord Ashcroft ...But when Andrew Rawnsley quit Politics Home last week, it was the latest sign of unease at the growing influence of the Conservative Party's deputy chairman. Lord Ashcroft is now marching ahead with plans to build his own media empire... Lord Ashcroft's investment in new media is causing palpable unease to the Conservative leadership. Ashcroft has so far avoided declaring his tax status but he is believed to be a non-domiciled resident of Belize. After pressure from Labour backbenchers, a late clause was added to the Political Parties and Elections Act this summer, meaning Ashcroft will now have to clarify his tax status, for which he has been set a deadline of January. Ashcroft is one of the Conservative Party's most generous donors, but his unresolved tax status continues to be an embarrassment. Yet his acquisition of influential political websites makes him useful to the party. "If the Tories had been hoping to sideline Ashcroft, they certainly can't afford to now," says one party insider. ---more--- 27 September 2009 (The Guardian): The bankroller who is blighting British political life Michael Ashcroft's wealth gives him huge influence in political life… and the power to crush debate ... At least Belize can pride itself on having leaders who will fight back. The best the British have managed to date is a small revolt led by my colleague, the notorious firebrand, Andrew Rawnsley. Along with about 20 other leftish commentators last week, I followed his example and decided to stop co-operating with the previously interesting website PoliticsHome (sic). It had provided balanced coverage by giving readers' views from across the political spectrum. We reasoned that after the deputy chairman of the Conservative party announced that he had bought a controlling interest, the independence of the site may be dented, however slightly. Labour figures guessed that Ashcroft was as interested in the huge polls in marginal constituencies the site collected. Their detailed results would be of use to Tory strategists, Labour speculated, particularly if they did not have to declare the costs of commissioning them as an election expense. At the same time as Ashcroft was buying into PoliticsHome, he bought ConservativeHome, not because he is a collector of sites named by illiterate web designers, but because it is the foremost discussion board for Tory party activists. The Conservative rank and file proved their traditional subservience to their betters still survived and did not protest about the potential threat to the independence of a meeting place where they could be critical of Cameron. The leftists were more forthright, but I doubt if their complaints will make a difference. Ashcroft understands that our world has more in common with the oligarchic age of empire than 20th-century mass democracy and his insight gives him the edge over anyone who takes him on. Many honourable Conservatives, for instance, deplore David Cameron's weak refusal to insist that a party official, who was granted a peerage on the understanding he pay taxes, publicly declares that he is also domiciled in Britain for tax purposes. His failure to confront Ashcroft proves that the prime minster of Belize has more backbone than the man who would be prime minister of Britain. Until Ashcroft says differently, we must assume that he expects working- and middle-class taxpayers to pick up his bills. ---more--- 29 August 2009 (The Independent): MPs demand fresh scrutiny of Lord Ashcroft The tax status of the Tory donor Lord Ashcroft came under renewed scrutiny last night as MPs demanded the publication of secret details of his promise to live permanently in the UK. Britain's information watchdog was criticised for delays in deciding whether to force through the release of details about the assurances, given by Lord Ashcroft to the Government after his elevation to the peerage in 2000. He is said to spend some of his time in Belize, where he has many business interests. Gordon Prentice, a Labour MP, has demanded answers from the Information Commissioner after the head of the civil service, Sir Gus O'Donnell, refused to release the details. Lord Ashcroft has donated millions of pounds to the Tories. He has always refused to say whether he is resident or pays taxes in the UK, claiming it is a private matter. ---more--- 28 August 2009 (The Independent): Paradise in Belize turns sour for Ashcroft Michael Ashcroft, the Tory peer and donor who is masterminding a key part of David Cameron's election strategy, has been denounced in his adopted homeland of Belize for using his money to "subjugate an entire nation". ... ... The attack on Lord Ashcroft by Belize's Prime Minister echoed the feelings of Labour MPs struggling to hold on to marginal seats against candidates generously bankrolled by the billionaire Tory. The Labour MP Gordon Prentice, who has campaigned to have Lord Ashcroft banned from making political donations in the UK until his tax status is cleared up, said yesterday evening: "I'm delighted that the change of government is bringing a wind of change to Belize. I just hope David Cameron is listening to what the Belize Prime Minister is saying." ---more--- 28 August 2009 (The Guardian): Lord Ashcroft 'subjugated a nation', claims Belize prime minister The Conservative deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, tonight denied a charge from the prime minister of Belize that he had "subjugated an entire nation" through his extensive business interests in the former British colony. ---more--- 23 June 2009 (The Mirror): Slippery cameron Another press conference from the Tory leader and another chance to ask him about Lord Ashcroft. He's the Conservative peer and billionaire donor who is refusing to say whether or not he's resident in this country for tax purposes. Which is rather embarrassing for Cameron who rattled on at length today about the importance of transparency in politics. For some reason this new-found openness does not extend to the House of Lords. The Mirror, which like Cameron believes our politicians should be 'open and accountable', asked Mr Cameron if Lord Ashcroft is a UK taxpayer. Surprisingly, he refused to answer. Until he does, the public will rightly conclude that anything he says on cleaning up politics is complete codswallop. ---more--- Note to editors: If you wish to publish the URL for this article please use www.gordonprenticemp.com/bte or www.gordonprenticemp.com/buyingtheelection | 
