I have to keep reminding myself what a creepy and calculating charlatan is Michael Ashcroft.

The passage of time dulls the sense of outrage.

A year ago Michael Ashcroft was forced to confess he was a non dom after refusing for a decade to comment on his tax status.

Why was he so tight lipped?

Simple.

He cheated his way into the House of Lords

And short changed HM Revenue and Customs of over £120 million.

(So says the highly respected former Lib Dem Treasury spokesman in the Lords, Matthew Oakeshott, a man who knows a thing or two about taxation).

In his book on the last election (Minority Verdict, September 2010) Ashcroft writes:

“On 1 March 2010 I revealed in a statement that my tax status was that of a “non-dom”, and disclosed the official undertakings that I had given in respect of the award of my peerage ten years earlier: to become a “long term resident” of the UK and to resign as Belize’s permanent representative to the United Nations.”

Whoaaa! That’s economical with the truth.

In fact, his 1 March statement says “the interpretation” of the words

`permanent residence' (in his clear and unequivocal assurance to take up permanent residence in the UK again before the end of 2000) was to be that of `a long term resident' of the UK".

The difference between “permanent” and “long term” is, in tax terms, about £120 million.

Ashcroft goes on:

“Three days later, on 4 March – the very day that the Electoral Commission published its report exonerating Bearwood – Tony Wright, Labour chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, announced a one-off evidence session devoted entirely to me.”

“This was an obvious partisan ploy designed to keep my tax affairs in the news for as long as possible – particularly the mistaken charge that I had undertaken to pay UK tax on my worldwide income – even though my statement and the release of the Cabinet Office papers should have put an end to the matter."

The Cabinet Office papers, put into the public domain on 7 May 2010, the day of the General Election, show Michael Ashcroft gave two undertakings.

In the first one, which secured his peerage, he promised to become a full UK taxpayer before taking his seat in the House of Lords. The Political Honours Scrutiny Committee made it crystal clear he should not take up his seat in the Lords until he had delivered on that promise.

A second, renegotiated, undertaking, which was never made public, allowed him to take his peerage while retaining non-dom status. The Political Honours Scrutiny Committee was blissfully unaware of all the details.

All this is set out in the transcript of the Public Administration Select Committee and in the supporting documentation released by the Cabinet Office.

Ashcroft makes the preposterous claim in Minority Report that the Select Committee was a “kangaroo court” so he refused to attend when invited.

The real charge against Michael Ashcroft is that he obtained a peerage by deception.

There should be a law against it.

Attachments:

statement_from_lord_ashcroft.pdf

[Ashcroft's 1 March 2010 statement and letter to Hague]

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