Tag Archives: lord ashcroft

“Reasonable to assume” BNP’s accounts break the law

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th January 2010 - 3:20 pm

Although The Observer headlined on questions over the legality of Lord Ashcroft’s donations to the Conservative Party, the news about the BNP is also of significance:

It has emerged that the Electoral Commission is to review the accounts of the British National party. The BNP submitted a revised set of accounts earlier this month, following concerns that the original set it had given to the commission had not been approved. Following an assessment of the revised accounts, the commission decided that it is “reasonable to assume” a breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act has occurred.

The development is

…

Posted in Election law | Also tagged bnp and electoral commission | Leave a comment

What the papers say…

By Philip Young | Fri 1st January 2010 - 4:10 pm

Ministers are trying to get their hands on hospital charity-cash … Labour kick up over calls for an immediate by-election … a quarter of all MPs now plan to quit … and there are 20,0000 council officers with the powers to search your home.

Tories trying to buy power, says Straw – The Independent, 30.12.09

David Cameron is today accused by a senior Cabinet minister of attempting to “buy” victory at the general election with a US-style campaign dominated by advertising. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, predicts the Tory campaign will the most lavish in political history and …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, david cameron, jack straw, jenny willott and what the papers say | Leave a comment

Now even the Telegraph calls on Tories to make Lord Ashcroft “come clean” over tax status

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st December 2009 - 12:30 pm

The decision of the Tory party to turn a blind eye to the mysterious tax status of their deputy chairman – and the man who funds their marginal seats campaign – has come under close media scrutiny in the last few weeks, with Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable last week raising the issue at (Deputy) Prime Minister’s Questions, and labelling Lord (Michael) Ashcroft a “non-dom”.

A week ago, Lib Dem treasury spokesman Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott wrote to his fellow peer to put the the simple question – “Are you a non-dom or not?” – to him directly: …

Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party, david cameron, matthew oakeshott and vince cable | 4 Comments

Vince labels Lord Ashcroft a non-dom at PMQs

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th December 2009 - 6:35 pm

Forgive me if I tread carefully here, for while the Lib Dem deputy leader is protected by the cloak of Parliamentary privilege your humble scribe has no wish to tangle with a billionaire. So I’ll let The Times tell the story of today’s (Deputy) Prime Minister’s Questions:

A senior Liberal Democrat today referred to Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman, as a “non-dom” in the Commons. It is the first time the Conservative peer, whose tax status is unknown, has been described in a such a way on the floor of the House.

Vince Cable, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, used

…

Posted in PMQs | Also tagged non-doms, PMQs and vince cable | 4 Comments

Oakeshott asks Ashcroft the simple question: “Are you a non dom or not?”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 14th December 2009 - 9:15 pm

David Cameron, yesterday, on Sky News:

I think it time to pass a law that says that if you want to be in the Houses of Parliament, if you want to be a legislator, you need to be or be treated as a full UK taxpayer.”

And quite right, too. But what has prompted the Tories’ Damascene conversion? After all, they had the opportunity earlier this year to vote for exactly what Mr Cameron is now, belatedly and under media pressure, calling for.

Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott’s House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill had its second reading on 23 January 2009, …

Posted in News | Also tagged matthew oakeshott | 4 Comments

What the papers say…

By Philip Young | Fri 11th December 2009 - 1:40 pm

A look back at the last few days of news and comment in the National newspapers, by former Fleet Street News Editor (and former Editor of Liberal News), Philip Young… including a few clippings you may have missed.

Sunday Times, 6.12.09:

“A Tory peer has been caught using someone else’s home address to claim tens of thousands of pounds in expenses. Lord Taylor of Warwick, a 57-year-old former barrister, told the House of Lords that his main home was a terrace house in Oxford, which he neither owned nor lived in. Taylor has lived in his family home …

Posted in News | Also tagged amantuklla ali, annunziata rees-moss, david cameron, david willetts, gordon brown, janet daley, joseph rowntree foundation, lord taylor of warwick, mary riddell, melanie phillips, mps expenses, norman lamb, quentin davies, rod liddle, vince cable and what the papers say | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 26 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 26th November 2009 - 7:42 am

Good morning, and Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers. 26th November is also the anniversary of the opening of the terrifying Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Today also sees a significant birthday for Tina Turner and a rather less significant one for Hilary Benn.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator. I’ve taken two environmental picks today:

Why are Reading’s Christmas lights on during the day?

Do these lights have to be blazing all day? This simply does not make finanical or environmental sense. Christmas lights in the Town Centre are very visible. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas lights. But what message does leaving them on all day send out about environmental responsibility?

(Cllr Daisy Benson)

‘Consultation’ Who are you kidding National Grid?

The beauty of an underground superconductor cable system would be that it would not only remain hidden, but the transmission of power from future expansion of energy in the South West (from renewable resources such as the Severn and new as yet to be built wind farms and tidal stream generators)
could with ease be accommodated in a super conducting cable. Super
conducting cables are also massively more efficient with losses of just 3%
compared to around 30% in the current national grid, something that is of
massive importance when we think of global warming and the need to conserve
and use energy wisely.

(Brian Matthew)

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged brian matthew, chilcot inquiry, daisy benson, hilary benn, pontcysyllte aqueduct, saddam hussein and tina turner | 1 Comment

Daily View 2×2: 19 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 19th November 2009 - 7:24 am

Good morning, and welcome to Daily View. Today, in 1990, Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy. It’s the birthday of American President and pizza-loving cat James Garfield.

Today is also both International Men’s Day and International Toilet Day.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

How much food can be grown on a balcony?
Cllr Alexis Rowell gives the answer: quite a lot, actually
Time to stop calling them “honour” killings
Meral Ece takes on a difficult subject.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alexis rowell, international mens day, international toilet day, james a garfield and meral ece | Leave a comment

“Electoral watchdog under fire as Lord Ashcroft inquiry threatens to run into election”

By Mark Pack | Sun 15th November 2009 - 11:31 am

From today’s Observer:

Controversy over Lord Ashcroft’s donations to the Conservative party deepened last night after Labour MPs demanded an urgent meeting with Britain’s elections watchdog.

Placing more pressure on the Tories, Labour MPs want to know why the Electoral Commission’s official inquiry into an Ashcroft-controlled company, which has given £3m to the party, has dragged on for 10 months and threatens to run into the general election campaign.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in Election law and News | Also tagged conservative party and electoral commission | Leave a comment

Has Ashcroft met his obligations after a decade?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 10th November 2009 - 11:13 am

In 1999, Tory leader William Hague proposed billionaire Michael Ashcroft for a life peerage, along with a promise that Ashcroft would take up permanent UK residence.

The millions Ashcroft has pumped into the Conservative Party has prompted political opponents to question his legal status – whether he lives and pays taxes in the UK.

That’s never been clear; but in Sunday’s Andrew Marr Programme on the BBC, William Hague was asked about Lord Ashcroft and some think Hague has settled the issue.

Here’s the exchange:

Marr “You’ve been out and about with Lord Ashcroft. Do you know whether he pays tax in this

…

Posted in News | Also tagged william hague | 4 Comments

Two more Lib Dems quit PoliticsHome panel

By Stephen Tall | Wed 30th September 2009 - 9:30 pm

I blogged at the weekend about the resignations of three Lib Dem MPs – Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Lynne Featherstone – from the PoliticsHome ‘insiders’ panel’, the PH100, in protest at the acquisition by Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft of a majority stake in the site.

Today I’ve hear from an impecable source that another Lib Dem MP – not previously publicly listed as a member of the PH100 – has also quit: Chris Huhne. The only other Lib Dem MP publicly listed as a PH100 member is David Laws, and I’ve not yet heard if he’s resigned.

The second Lib Dem to resign from the panel is, erm, me.

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, freddie sayers, politicshome.com, stephan shakespeare and stephen tall | 4 Comments

Clegg and Cable resign from PoliticsHome panel in protest at Ashcroft takeover

By Stephen Tall | Sat 26th September 2009 - 5:17 pm

A minor media spat broke out this week, following the announcement that Lord (Michael) Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman who bankrolls the party’s target seats while refusing to say if he pays tax in this country, has bought a majority stake in the political news and commentary aggregator site, PoliticsHome.

This triggered the resignation of the site’s editor-in-chief, Andrew Rawnsley, who issued a public statement arguing that:

It was essential for users of the site that they could feel absolute confidence in the political independence of PoliticsHome. I do not believe that can be compatible with being under the ownership

…

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew rawnsley, iain dale, lynne featherstone, martin bright, nick assinder, nick clegg, politicshome.com, stephan shakespeare and vince cable | 15 Comments

The Political Parties and Elections Act 2009: changes to election expenditure rules

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th August 2009 - 2:50 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

Hands up everyone who thought the problem with current rules for controlling constituency expenditure was that they work if a Parliament last for four years but not if it lasts for five? Nobody? Oh well, that’s the basis on which Parliament has just changed the law anyway.

This provision of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 has its roots in a sensible concern, but along the way disagreements between parties and lack of understanding of how campaigns actually operate has landed us with this rather odd change in the law.

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, electoral commission, featured and political parties and elections act 2009 | 13 Comments

South West under siege from Tory “lovebombing”?

By Helen Duffett | Wed 5th August 2009 - 5:36 pm

Lib Dem constituencies in the South West (map from the Independent)

The Independent has a piece today on the Lib Dems’ General Election prospects in the South West:

On the Cornish doorsteps, the Conservatives’ man for the Camborne and Redruth seat at the next election is detecting signs that his party is on the verge of a major breakthrough. “There is a feeling here that the Liberal Democrats have not delivered locally,” he says. “There’s everything to play for.”

His quiet confidence in defeating Julia Goldsworthy, the high-profile

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Posted in News | Also tagged jeremy browne and julia goldsworthy | 22 Comments

Tax-exiles get a new lease of life as political donors

By Mark Pack | Sun 2nd August 2009 - 1:23 pm

From today’s Observer:

A much-publicised law designed to stop wealthy tax exiles bankrolling political parties has been quietly dropped until after a general election, the Observer has learned.

The disclosure means that key Labour donors such as Lakshmi Mittal as well as Tory donor Lord Ashcroft will still be able to pump millions of pounds into the forthcoming election campaign, despite promises to curb the influence of wealthy backers. It has prompted accusations that the government has “nobbled” an act of parliament by failing to ask the electoral commission to enforce the rule.

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said he

…

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral commission, lakshmi mittal, matthew oakeshott and political parties and elections act 2009 | 19 Comments

Ashcroft told: pay your taxes or don’t donate to the Tories

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th July 2009 - 2:00 pm

As the Telegraph reports:

Lord Ashcroft, the major Conservative donor, will be forced to reveal whether he pays tax or stop funding the party, under new election rules. The move is seen as a direct attack on the peer, a Tory deputy party chairman who has bankrolled Conservative candidates in marginal constituencies to the outrage of opposition politicians.

On being made a Conservative peer in 2000, Lord Ashcroft gave an assurance that he would pay UK taxes, but has since refused to discuss his affairs saying that they are private. … The amendment, which was nodded through without a vote on Monday night, would effectively ban anyone who did not pay taxes donating more than £7,500 in a single year.

It was an interesting debate if the Hansard transcript is any guide. You can read Lib Dem shadow justice secretary David Howarth’s contribution HERE, excerpt below:

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged david howarth and donations | 8 Comments

Lord Ashcroft and the Conservative Party: the financial controversies

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th February 2009 - 10:20 am

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

With Michael Ashcroft back in the news over his financial support for the Conservative Party, this post provides a quick recap of the past controversies over Michael Ashcroft, the Conservative Party and political funding.

Ashcroft’s sequence of senior Conservative posts

Under William Hague, Ashcroft was Treasurer of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), becoming a peer and member of the House of Lords in 2000. He was involved in a protracted dispute with The Times, which had been investigating some of the sources of his wealth. A libel action was settled out of court, with both sides paying their own legal costs.

After Hague’s departure, there was a gap of several years before Ashcroft once again held senior office in the Conservative Party, coming back as Deputy Chairman after the 2005 general election. This role, combined with his financial contributions, have given him huge influence over the Conservative Party’s target seats operation.

Ashcroft’s influence on the Conservative Party’s direction

He paid privately for an extensive polling operation during the 2005 campaign, the results of which – along with his book, Smell the coffee: A wake-up call for the Conservative Party – played a significant part in the modernising debates in the Conservative Party.

Tim Montgomerie has commented on ConservativeHome that, “I think his polling operation and Smell The Coffee report did too much to send the Cameron project in an über-modernising direction.”

Ashcroft and the House of Lords

Prior to being made a peer in 2000, Michael Ashcroft promised that he would return to the UK and pay income tax:

Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party, electoral commission, fraser nelson, james forsyth, john mann, tim montgomerie and william hague | 1 Comment

Electoral Commission to investigate Ashcroft’s donations to the Tories

By Mark Pack | Sat 21st February 2009 - 8:47 pm

News just breaking on Sky… donations to the Conservative Party made by Bearwood Services are to be investigated by the Electoral Commission.

UPDATE: The BBC has more.

Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party and electoral commission | 2 Comments

Would the Tories kick Lord Belize Ashcroft out of the Upper Chamber?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 10th February 2009 - 6:40 pm

Over at the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire & Friends blog, Jason Beattie asks if the Tories are on the point of reversing their U-turn, and supporting a Lib Dem motion obliging anyone who sits in the House of Lords to be a UK resident for tax purposes:

This may seem like an obscure requirement but it could mean Lord Laidlaw (a Tory) Lord Paul (Labour) and possibly Lord Ashcroft (a Tory who has never come clean about where he pays his taxes) face being kicked out of the Upper House. When this bill was first introduced by the Lib Dem Lord

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, house of lords, jason beattie, lord strathclyde, matthew oakeshott and party funding | Leave a comment

Labour ‘scrap plans to block wealthy donors’ spending in marginal seats’

By Stephen Tall | Sat 7th February 2009 - 10:33 am

From today’s Guardian:

Ministers have abandoned plans to block wealthy Tory donors such as Lord Ashcroft from spending huge sums of money in marginal seats between general elections. … The amendment scraps a planned “trigger” which would have meant that would have meant that, the moment a candidate was adopted, their campaign spending would have been subject to restrictions.

The Guardian understands ministers have been warned that the rules would be very difficult to police. In its place, the government has set a date – 55 months after the new parliament first sits – when new restrictions, set at £25,000 per

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Posted in News | Also tagged jack straw and party funding | 7 Comments

What will the political fallout from the peers lobbying scandal be?

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st February 2009 - 1:03 pm

An intriguing report in today’s Sunday Times:

PEERS who avoid tax or have criminal convictions – such as Lord Archer and Lord Black – are to be expelled from the House of Lords in the wake of the lords for hire scandal.

The reforms are being drawn up by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, in an attempt to restore the Lords’ battered reputation after last weekend’s revelations in The Sunday Times. He plans to enact the legislation necessary to expel them before the general election…

Lord Ashcroft, the billionaire Tory donor, has repeatedly refused to confirm his tax status, while Lord Laidlaw,

…

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged baroness gardner, conrad black, david cameron, jack straw, jeffrey archer, lord laidlaw, lord paul and matthew oakeshott | 3 Comments

Conservatives continue to take money from peer who broke his tax promise

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd January 2009 - 11:18 am

The Conservative peer Lord Laidlaw was criticised by the Lords Appointments Commission last year for failing to keep his promise to stop being a tax exile if he was appointed to the House of Lords:

The commission said it had informed the prime minister of Lord Laidlaw’s situation and said it would not have approved his peerage if it had known that he would not honour his promise.

And how have the Conservatives reacted to this broken promise and public criticism? By continuing to take money from him, as today’s Daily Telegraph reports:

In March, June and

…

Posted in News | Also tagged boris johnson and lord laidlaw | 1 Comment

David Howarth MP writes… How to reform party political funding

By David Howarth | Thu 11th December 2008 - 5:45 pm

This country faces a crisis of confidence in democracy just as profound as the crisis of confidence in the financial markets. Both are ultimately about trust – trust in the quality of what is being sold in the one case, trust in what political leaders say, and what their motives are, in the other.

The series of scandals about party funding – from cash for honours to the Ashcroft affair – damage democracy deeply by sending the constant message that politics is not about values and ideas, but about buying power and access, and if you are not a rich donor …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david howarth and party funding | 16 Comments

Learning lessons from the US elections: four legal differences you need to know

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th November 2008 - 11:20 am

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

With a new US President this week, the following few weeks are likely to see all sorts of prognostications about the lessons UK political parties and campaigners can and should be drawing.

However, many of the differences between American and British election campaigns are not the result of American campaigners having good ideas the British should copy, but rather are the result of four key legal differences between the two countries.

Posted in LDVUSA and News | 8 Comments

Three Electoral Commission investigations that could cause trouble for the Conservatives (UPDATED)

By Mark Pack | Sun 26th October 2008 - 10:07 am

In reverse chronological order we have…

One: an investigation over Robin Saunders, who wasn’t able to donate to the Conservative Party due to being an American, but shortly after her donation was refused the same sum was donated via her British investment company. (Daily Telegraph)

Two: an investigation over Lord Ashcroft and whether overseas funds are being illegally used to help fund the Conservative Party. (The Mirror)

Three: the Electoral Commission’s probe into CCS (which provides campaigning services to the Conservative Party) cleared it on several points, but on one key point decided it didn’t like what it found: The Electoral …

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral commission | 3 Comments

Lord Ashcroft under fire over his tax status

By Mark Pack | Mon 29th September 2008 - 7:45 pm

There’s been a double-dose of criticism from the Spectator today for Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft and his refusal to come clean on whether he has kept the promise he made at the time he was made a peer.

As I’ve blogged before (such as here), on being appointed to the House of Lords, Lord Ashcroft promised he would become a UK resident and start paying tax here.

Since getting the peerage (which of course can’t now be removed if he didn’t keep his promise), he has refused to state whether he’s kept his word, journalists who have dug into the story …

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron and james forsyth | 3 Comments

Ashcroft’s funding of the Conservative Party set to be investigated

By Mark Pack | Mon 15th September 2008 - 11:35 am

Following yesterday’s Sunday Times investigation into the route by which money is being funelled by Lord Ashcroft into the Conservative Party, a Labour MP is now asking the Electoral Commission to investigate.

The Sunday Times reported that:

Stargate has channelled £6m to the UK in the past three years, a large chunk of which appears to have ended up in the Conservative party accounts. The offshore company appears to have alighted on a lawful scheme that circumvents the banning of foreign donations to British political parties…

Ashcroft, who still has extensive business interests in Belize, was appointed party

…

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral commission | Leave a comment

Opinion: A performance to be proud of, but not to settle for

By Neale Upstone | Tue 6th May 2008 - 9:03 am

A great set of local election results – but to say that we did “well” or “better than expected” is, in my view, an understatement.

On our resources, which do not include the money of (Lord) David Sainsbury (of Turville), or (Lord) Michael Ashcroft (of Tax Haven) or (Lord) Irvine Laidlaw, we’ve done fantastically. Apologies for the brackets, but I think we can say that their ‘titles’ are optional.

Can we do better? You bet!

Here in Cambridge, for example, I doubt that a single leaflet mentioned Nick Clegg’s name. I think they should have. Our local election campaigns should be …

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 45 Comments

Shouldn’t today’s polls make Conservatives criticise Lord Ashcroft? (UPDATED)

By Mark Pack | Sun 27th April 2008 - 1:56 pm

I’m puzzled by some of the coverage in today’s News of the World / ICM poll of voters in Labour – Conservative marginals.

The Conservative share of the vote in that poll is 40%. At the last general election their share of the vote in those seats was 38% (assuming that the same seats have been polled as were polled in their marginals poll last autumn; that’s certainly how the newspaper’s report reads). That’s a gain of only 2%.

However, the last national ICM poll – in today’s Sunday Telegraph – has the Conservatives on 39%. That’s a gain of 6% on the …

Posted in Polls | 7 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Dirty Dozen #3

By Jonathan Calder | Sun 30th March 2008 - 5:21 pm

When I agreed to write this monthly round up of Labour and Tory blogging I said I would aim to “keep a balance between pointing to interesting postings that we Lib Dems may have missed and laughing at the folly of our opponents”.

So here goes.

Labour

March began with Margaret Hodge attacking the Proms for being elitist. But how does Hodge’s attendance at arts events display her own democratic tastes? Fortunately we have her own blog to tell us. Here she is writing in February of this year:

Since I last posted here, I’ve seen Othello, Swan Lake, Nutcracker (Matthew Bourne’s exuberant

…

Posted in Best of the blogs | Also tagged ConservativeHome, iain dale and jonathan calder | 9 Comments

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Ashcroft’s sequence of senior Conservative posts

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Ashcroft and the House of Lords

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