Tory donor Lord Ashcroft twice rejected for peerage due to tax exile status

Published: 8:16AM GMT 03 Mar 2010

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The authority of the Public Honours Scrutiny Committee, Lord Thomson of Monifieth, told thereafter Prime Minister Tony Blair that the issue of Lord Ashcroft"s taxation standing "seems central" to the subject of either he should be ennobled, according to The Guardian.

Lord Thomson"s widow pronounced that her husband, who died in 2008, after regretted in the future giving his approval, as he felt Lord Ashcroft was "not a befitting man to be a peer".

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Liberal Democrats sought to keep up vigour on the Conservatives over their greatest donor, job on HM Revenue and Customs to control an exploration in to either Lord Ashcroft"s joining to take up "permanent residence" in the UK was concordant with his standing as "non-domiciled" for taxation purposes.

Chris Huhne, Home affairs spokesman, who estimates that the non-dom standing has saved Lord Ashcroft around �127 million over 10 years, asked HMRC arch senior manager Lesley Strathie to examine either he should compensate any behind taxes.

The call came as the ultimate every day check for The Sun showed the Tory lead over Labour dropping by dual points to 5 per cent given Lord Ashcroft"s warn proclamation on Monday that he did not compensate UK taxation on his abroad income.

The YouGov consult put the Conservatives on 38 per cent (down one point), Labour on 33 per cent (up one) and Liberal Democrats on sixteen per cent (down one) - a result that could have Labour the greatest celebration in a hung council if steady in the election.

The Guardian published sum of letters in between Mr Blair, Lord Thomson and William Hague in 1999 and 2000, when the thereafter Tory personality was perplexing to secure a nobility for Mr Ashcroft.

In a minute following the committee"s 1999 warding off of his nomination, Mr Hague concurred that one reason for their preference was that "Mr Ashcroft was a taxation exile".

He reliable that Mr Ashcroft was "non-resident for taxation purposes", but told Mr Blair: "He is committed to apropos resident... This preference will cost him (and good the Treasury) tens of millions a year in taxation nonetheless he considers it worthwhile."

A second assignment in 2000 was additionally incited down by the cabinet and Lord Thomson wrote to Mr Blair on Mar twenty-two to insist that it compulsory "firm justification of an undeniable preference by Mr Ashcroft that he will have taken up chateau in the UK, on a permanent basis" prior to they could suggest his ennoblement.

The cabinet pronounced the issue of his taxation chateau "seems central" and could be resolved usually by "an declaration about such an incorrigible decision, carrying with it messages about accessibility and standing as a UK taxpayer", The Guardian reported.

Mr Ashcroft"s "clear and undeniable assurance" that he would take up permanent chateau in the UK by the finish of the year was given to Mr Hague the following day, and his nobility was voiced on Mar 31.

Lady Thomson removed that the fast-moving events interrupted a revisit to Cyprus she was creation with her husband.

She told Channel 4 News: "The Ashcroft tale had been rumbling on. The call came from the British consul in Nicosia that he had got to see my father in confidence. A place was organised - at a crossroads with a cafe.

"We done the approach to the cafe. George and the consul had a in isolation speak and looked at the papers and done their decision. I think they imposed restrictions. When they review the papers they were broken at once. They had been burning down the convenience."

She added: "I know George was rather mad afterwards. He felt he had been betrothed a sure formula of poise and that had not worked out. I would contend that George felt this was not a befitting man to be a peer."

The Cabinet Office pronounced that former Clerk to the Crown in Chancery Sir Hayden Phillips had reached an agreement with Tory arch whip James Arbuthnot in 2000 about the understand of Mr Ashcroft"s undertaking, final that his guarantee to take up "permanent residence" meant he would be a "long-term resident" in the UK.

A Cabinet Office orator said: "This was not about tax, this was about residency."

But Sir Hayden told The Times: "I was in no on all sides to endorse either or not he would or would not encounter the commitments he had entered into. Nor was I in the commercial operation of interpreting what those commitments meant."

Labour have vowed not to let the subject of the Tory emissary chairman"s taxation on all sides rest following his warn proclamation on Monday that he hold "non-dom" status.

First Secretary Lord Mandelson has called on the Tories to lapse Lord Ashcroft"s donations, value some-more than �4 million given David Cameron became personality in 2005 and destined mostly at the extrinsic seats that will establish the result of this year"s election.

Labour"s choosing co-ordinator Douglas Alexander pronounced that the new revelations "shift the concentration of the Ashcroft tale resolutely to William Hague"s door".

Mr Alexander said: "These letters show that he betrothed both the thereafter Prime Minister and the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee that Lord Ashcroft would turn proprietor for taxation purposes and compensate in William Hague"s own difference to the Prime Minister "tens of millions a year in tax".

"William Hague has regularly told the open that Lord Ashcroft "complied with the commitments that he gave".

"Given the conditions of William Hague"s minute to the thereafter Prime Minister on twenty-three May 1999, the subject he contingency right away answer is did he regularly trick the British open or was he regularly misled by Michael Ashcroft?"

Mr Cameron refused to contend when he learnt that Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom and told reporters who challenged him on the issue that they were "flogging a passed horse".