The former Vice Chair of the Conservative Party, Lord Laidlaw, is to give up his seat in the House of Lords to avoid paying UK taxes on his worldwide income. The non-dom, who is based in Monaco, faces an estimated £50 million tax bill if he brings his tax affairs on-shore. Under a rule buried in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act, passed at the tail end of the last Parliament, non-doms in the Lords would have to give up their tax status and become full UK taxpayers to remain in Parliament.

Laidlaw lied to get a peerage. He told the House of Lords Appointments Commission in 2004 that he would bring his tax affairs on-shore and, on the basis of that undertaking, he was “raised to the peerage”.

He reneged on that promise.

Now the Sunday Times tells us that he will be allowed to keep his title, Baron Laidlaw of Rothiemay in Banffshire.

Why? What has he ever done to deserve that title (insofar as titles are ever deserved) other than give a shed full of cash to the Conservatives?

Michael Ashcroft, another Vice Chair of the Conservative Party who gave an undertaking to secure a peerage, has vowed to give up his non-dom status in order to remain in the House of Lords.

We shall see.

See the Sunday Times story.