So, Lord Ashcroft finally tells us he is no longer a non-dom and is paying full taxes on his worldwide income.

A fascinating pen portrait in the Daily Telegraph today by Kate Weinberg who spent a day with him in London.

The man who has given £15 million to the Conservatives and was rewarded with a peerage in 2000 tells us that the agreement (that he could remain a non-dom while becoming a member of the House of Lords) was re-negotiated so that he could become a “long term” rather than a “full resident” of the UK and so avoid paying full UK tax on his worldwide income.

Ashcroft goes on to say that: “At the end of the negotiation I was in good faith and everyone knew the position.”

Pardon?

The negotiation was carried out in secret and no public statement was ever made about the existence of this second agreement which allowed Ashcroft to enter the Lords as a tax exile.

How can Ashcroft keep a straight face and say that “everyone knew the position”?

In the last Parliament, we gave Lord Ashcroft the opportunity to come before the Public Administration Select Committee when it met on 18 March 2010 to consider the circumstances surrounding his elevation to the peerage. He declined to attend.

But it is clear from the evidence we got from Baroness Brenda Dean and Sir Hayden Phillips that the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee expected Ashcroft to bring his tax affairs on-shore before entering the Lords in 2000.

For his part, Hayden Phillips, the top mandarin responsible for checking out prospective peers, admitted the existence of a second secret agreement but explained lamely that it was not his job to put it into the public domain.

You can see the exchange.

So what does this tells us?

Ashcroft got his peerage under false pretences. For ten years he was a non-dom, cheating the Treasury out of millions. He should repay the taxes due on his worldwide income since 2000.

That would be a fitting gesture from the Vice Chair of the Conservative Party as we enter this new age of austerity.

We are all in it together.

Pull the other one!

Here are the key passages in Kate Weinberg's piece:

Controversy struck again in the run-up to this year’s election when, a decade after he accepted a peerage, he announced that he remained a non-dom. This seemed at odds with the understanding he gave in 2000 that he would become fully resident in Britain upon entering the House of Lords.

Lord Ashcroft claims that this agreement was later renegotiated so he could become a “long-term” rather than “full resident” (and therefore be exempt from tax on all but his UK income). “At the end of the negotiation I was in good faith and everyone knew the position.”

So what would he say to the people who believe that moneybags Ashcroft has avoided tens of millions of pounds in tax?

“Well it depends what you mean by 'avoided’,” says Lord Ashcroft unrepentantly. “Every Saudi national has avoided paying UK tax because they’ve managed to be born outside the UK. If I choose not to go to Scotland, I’ve avoided Scotland, what does 'avoid’ mean?”

I bang on a little more about the difference between legal requirements and moral positions.

“Always back to the same thing,” says Lord Ashcroft with growing impatience. “The taxes, on and on ...” Anyway, he adds abruptly, it is no longer relevant. How so?

He explains that new laws brought in under the Coalition mean that all members of the Lords will have to be fully taxed. Yes, I reply, but when does he plan to come onshore?

“I already am.”

Really? There has been no public announcement. So he is now paying all of his taxes, including everything that comes from his businesses around the world?

“Yes. So I say to people don’t go moaning on about it because it is no longer an issue. The point is moot... Can we move on?” We move on.