Fresh revelations concerning Lord Ashcroft have made a mockery of David Cameron’s assertions that he is a reformer and is going to address the issue of parliamentary sleaze. Senior Tory spokesman Sir George Young admitted to the BBC that Ashcroft has a ‘non-dom’ status that allows him to avoid paying British tax on income and assets.
Ashcroft is bankrolling the Tory party’s election campaign in marginal constituencies and it has also emerged that he has not declared to the parliamentary authorities all of his business interests. Ashwood owns Bearwood Corporate Services and the company has donated millions of pounds to the Tories yet his ownership is not recorded in the latest register of interests.
Heather Kidd said “Here in Shropshire people are appalled by the revelations of parliamentary sleaze and yet despite what David Cameron says publicly, privately he seems to endorse it. He has said that “it was no longer acceptable for Âthose in parliament to regard their tax affairs as a Âprivate matter between Âthemselves and the tax authorities” and “For years all parties have taken the same view that someone’s tax status is a matter between them and the Inland Revenue. That needs to change.”
Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman who is a long standing campaigner to bar non-doms from parliament, said: “Why is it only now, 10 long years after William Hague promised Lord Ashcroft would come onshore to get a peerage, that this admission is now being dragged out of the Conservatives like a wisdom tooth? This makes a mockery of David Cameron’s claim to be a reformer in favour of cleaning up the political system.”