Or perhaps not... 

Last March Lord Ashcroft was forced to disclose he had been a non-dom for the past decade – despite the insistence of the then Political Honours Scrutiny Committee, which vets nominations for propriety, that he should become a full UK tax payer before entering the House of Lords.

Now we are told the tax cheat is paying full UK taxes. But for how much longer?

Is Ashcroft thinking about transferring truckloads of cash into his wife’s name to again escape the demands of HM Customs and Revenue?

Last October he tabled a PQ asking the Government “if it is acceptable for one spouse in a marriage to be resident in the United Kingdom for tax purposes while the other is not.”

He was told that, because of independent taxation, individuals are taxed separately and “there is no specific provision that the tax residence status of the individual must be the same as that of their spouse”.

This explains why the Government's efficiency expert, Sir Philip Green, a notorious tax dodger is his own right, was able to transfer £1.2 billion, free of tax, to his wife who lives in Monaco.

On 19 October 2010, Ashcroft had the cheek to ask the Government “whether they expect citizens to organise their tax affairs in order to maximise tax payable?"

Like it or not, the ignoble Lord has a certain chutzpah.

Ashcroft, who cheated his way to a peerage, is now expressing interest in the way in which honours are made in respect of Overseas Territories.

Having secured an honour for himself is he checking out the possibility of rewarding some of his Caribbean business cronies?

Ashcroft was, of course, nominated by the then Leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague, to be a “working peer”.

After a long period of inactivity, and with the non-dom controversy safely behind him, he has sprung into life.

For the record, in the current Parliamentary session, Ashcroft has tabled 56 written parliamentary questions but has not spoken once in the Chamber.

In 2009-2010 he asked 5 written questions but, again, no speeches or oral questions.

In 2008-2009, he managed 18 written and one oral. In 2007-2008, 4 written and no speeches or oral questions. And in 2006-2007, one written and one oral contribution.

I suspect Ashcroft will be remembered more for his contributions to the Conservative Party than for his contributions to the House of Lords.

Attachments:

sirphilipgreenreview.pdf

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