For the last 10 years, despite his promise after being made a Tory peer to "take up permanent residence in the UK again", toff after tory toff has dissembled, obfuscated, veiled, hidden, evaded and downright lied about the tax status of their major donor, Lord Ashcroft.Only revealed today is the truth about his status, and only then because a Freedom Of Information request was due to reveal his true tax status.
The FOI reveals that his promise was made to William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, raising questions about his responsibility to confirm in the past decade details of Ashcroft's tax status.
He has consistently refused to answer questions about Ashcroft. Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, accused the Conservative party of being "evasive and obfuscatory" on the issue when he ruled that the Cabinet Office should reveal the details of the promise Ashcroft was known to have made at the time of his ennoblement.
Ashcroft has funded and masterminded a £5m campaign in marginal seats, which is widely expected to strongly influence the outcome of the election.Gordon Prentice, who put the FOI request into the Cabinet Office, said: "This is absolutely explosive. He says that he has been declaring all his UK income to HM revenue, he's not declaring his worldwide income, he's worth £850m. He should resign from House of Lords immediately."
It will be remembered that the 'Boy' George Osborne recently was questioned on this very matter... and his answers were at best evasive, obfuscatory and dissembling and at worst, probably downright lies.
Read more here.
