Tag Archives: matthew oakeshott

Mark Pack

Tory donor, tax affairs, Oakeshott on the case: some things haven’t changed

By Mark Pack | Wed 25th August 2010 - 8:11 pm

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott is clearly not put off by coalition from his pursuit of Tory donors and their tax statuses. Today it is Jon Wood, whose tax affairs have been in the papers with Lord Oakeshott saying, “Now is the time to take big money out of British politics”. You can read more here.

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Stephen Tall

Labour U-turns on non-doms as Lib Dem’s Oakeshott wins battle

By Stephen Tall | Mon 1st February 2010 - 6:55 pm

Glad tidings from the House of Lords today, where Labour has – at long, long last – bowed to Lib Dem pressure and announced that non-doms will no longer be able to sit in Parliament.

The party’s terrier-like Treasury spokesman Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott has welcomed the Government’s announcement:

I have introduced 4 bills over the last 5 years to ban non-doms from the House of Lords with no support from the Government and with serious obstruction from the Conservatives.

“Now, with an election looming, I am delighted that the Government has had this last-minute conversion and adopted my Bill almost to the letter in their amendment.

“It’s outrageous if people who sit in our Parliament do not pay full British taxes like everyone else. They must pay up or pack up.”

The Government, in the person of the almost-tautologically named Baroness Royall, has sent a letter to all peers today explaining how the new law will affect them:

20100102 All Peers Letter

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Robert Dobson

What the papers say…

By Robert Dobson | Sat 16th January 2010 - 5:22 pm

Tories claim Labour is using taxpayers’ money to fund election advertising campaign – Telegraph, 15.1.10

“The Conservatives accused Labour of “raiding” taxpayers’ money to fund their election campaign. New figures uncovered by the Conservatives show that spending on advertising has increased to £232 million, which is a 39 per cent increase on the previous year.”

A tenth of schools fail to meet GCSE targets – The Guardian, 14.1.10

“One in 10 secondary schools in England failed to meet basic targets for GCSEs last summer and academies were disproportionately represented among the failing institutions, government statistics published today reveal.

“David Laws, the Liberal Democrats’ education …

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Robert Dobson

What the papers say…

By Robert Dobson | Sat 9th January 2010 - 2:20 pm

Brown sees off the plotters…just – The Daily Telegraph, 7.1.10

“Gordon Brown was forced to rely on lukewarm backing from senior Cabinet colleagues last night to see off an attempt to oust him as Prime Minister.

“By last night, the attempted coup, which had begun at lunchtime, appeared to have failed as no senior figures were prepared to back it. But while every senior minister issued a statement condemning the letter, few voiced strong support for Mr Brown.”

MPs could be in line for £15,000 pay rise – Daily Mail, 6.1.10

“MPs could receive a big pay rise to compensate …

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Stephen Tall

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: …

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Helen Duffett

Zac Goldsmith’s £260,000 “punt” on getting elected

By Helen Duffett | Tue 15th December 2009 - 12:05 pm

Latest figures from the Electoral Commission reveal that Zac Goldsmith, Conservative candidate for Richmond Park, has spent more than a quarter of a million pounds of his own money in the hope of getting elected.

From today’s London Evening Standard:

“The environmentalist has donated £260,000 since he was selected to fight the Richmond Park seat in 2007, according to the latest figures from the Electoral Commission…

“Virtually all of the money goes to office staff and “office costs”. The party says that Mr Goldsmith set up his own office in Richmond, separate to the local association’s headquarters. The candidate employs two members

…

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Stephen Tall

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, …

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 12 October 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 9:45 am

2 Big Stories

MPs’ expenses row re-ignites as MPs question findings of independent inquiry

In case you thought the row had blown itself out, here comes the sequel:

Gordon Brown has urged MPs to repay expenses claimed up to five years ago if asked to do so following an audit ordered after the furore. There are reports that some MPs plan to defy calls to repay money and may challenge the request in the courts.

The PM is among hundreds of MPs expected to be asked to repay sums following a review of all claims by former civil servant Sir Thomas Legg. …

The BBC understands he has set retrospective limits for some items and annual limits on what he believes they should have claimed. These are £1,000 a year for gardening, and £2,000 a year for cleaning. It is believed to have angered some MPs who say they will not repay the money.

Saturday’s Telegraph reported the following snippet:

Last night, the Lib Dems, who are confident that they avoided the worst excesses, stepped up pressure on the Conservatives

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 5 October 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 9:50 am

2 Big Stories


Tory conference opens, and it’s time to party like it’s 1994

A few thousand Tories are converging on Manchester today, with two issues dominating discussion: Europe and welfare cuts. Ah, and there we were thinking The Major Years were but a distant memory.

On a more positive note, the Tories will be singing today from the localism song-book, with Caroline Spelman championing the party’s conversion to local control of local services – an interesting about-turn for an MP who opposed Scottish and Welsh devolution, and believes central government should impose council tax freezes from Whitehall.

Ministerial …

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Helen Duffett

The most influential Liberal Democrats: 25-1

By Helen Duffett | Tue 22nd September 2009 - 5:12 pm

Today’s Daily Telegraph completes the paper’s list of the top 50 most influential Liberal Democrats, counting down from 25 to 1.

The list includes new entries by Richard Allan, Lord Oakeshott, Party President Baroness Scott and new Chief Executive Chris Fox.

In the top two spots, Vince Cable and Nick Clegg have swapped places, with Vince this year’s number one.

What do you think of the list? Is anyone missing? Were there any surprises in the list for you?

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Helen Duffett

Oakeshott to challenge Tory peer’s home expense claims

By Helen Duffett | Tue 4th August 2009 - 12:49 pm

From the BBC:

The Lib Dems’ Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said he would be asking Lords authorities what address Lord Taylor claimed for between 2001 and 2007.

Lord Taylor told the newspaper he regarded the property in the West Midlands as his main home.

The Sunday Times alleged Lord Taylor claimed more than £70,000 in overnight allowances between 2001 and 2007 on the basis that his mother’s home in the West Midlands was his main home.

The paper claimed the house was in fact sold in 2001 after his mother’s death – but Lord Taylor said he regarded it as

…

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Mark Pack

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

…

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dems oppose ‘non-dom’ Ron Sandler as chairman of Lloyds

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 2:30 pm

So the Telegraph reports:

Ron Sandler should not be eligible for the job of chairman of Lloyds Banking Group because he is non-domiciled for tax purposes, the Liberal Democrats have declared. …

“The chairman of a nationalised, or part-nationalised, bank should not be a non-dom,” Lord Oakeshott, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman said. “Ron Sandler should not become chairman of Lloyds.”

The Lib Dems opposed the appointment at Northern Rock of Mr Sandler, a former boss of the Lloyds of London insurance market. He was initially paid £90,000 a month as executive chairman but his salary fell to £350,000 after appointing a

…

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Stephen Tall

The Times: Osborne to be investigated by sleaze watchdog over #mpsexpenses

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd July 2009 - 5:30 pm

Here are the allegations, as summarised in a Lib Dem press release issued this afternoon:

George Osborne used his second homes allowance on a London property and then switched it to a large farmhouse in his Cheshire constituency of Tatton. He bought the Cheshire residence ten months before he won his Tatton seat in 2001. Instead of taking out a mortgage on the farmhouse he increased the mortgage on the London property which he bought for £700,000 in 1998.

He designated the London house his second home, even though it was his main residence, so he could claim mortgage interest payments.

…

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dems reveal civil servants paid £26m in bonuses

By Stephen Tall | Wed 17th June 2009 - 5:57 pm

Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott, the Lib Dems’ treasury spoeksman in the House of Lords, has been busy in recent weeks – busy compiling figures from Parliamentary answers on the level of “non-consolidated performance pay” (bonuses to you and me) shared between 2,600 of the most senior officials working in Whitehall. And here’s what he’s found:

  • senior civil servants were awarded “bonuses” totalling £26 million last year;
  • £1.21 million was paid out to 141 senior officials in the Department for Business – three quarters of the total – an average of £8,582 each
  • officials at the Department of Health received a

    • …

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    Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged | 2 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Lib Dems call on George Osborne to pay capital gains tax

    By Mark Pack | Sun 14th June 2009 - 10:35 am

    From The Telegraph:

    George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, is facing demands to “pay back” £55,000 in capital gains tax, which critics say he is morally obliged to pay after “flipping” his designated second property.

    The Liberal Democrats said they had calculated how much capital gains tax Mr Osborne avoided by the way he designated his London family home. They called on David Cameron to force him to pay it back.

    The Tory leader has clamped down heavily on backbench Tory MPs who have abused the expenses system, but he has yet to censure a senior member of his inner circle…

    Lord Oakeshott of

    …

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    Alix Mortimer

    Daily View 2×2: 27 May 2009

    By Alix Mortimer | Wed 27th May 2009 - 9:34 am

    2 big stories

    Much of today’s coverage is summed up perfectly by the Independent’s headline Brown v Cameron v Clegg, under which all three leaders set out their visions for the rebuilding of Britain’s broken politics. They are due to take party in cross-party talks according to the Guardian, talks to be led by that famed bastion of reform, Jack Straw. Perhaps that’s who Nick Clegg was thinking of when he said (to the Times): “There are prominent people in government who recognise that the game’s up.” Our friends in the Lords are

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    Lib Dem peer reveals online Barclays tax documents

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 26th March 2009 - 10:57 pm

    Here’s how The Guardian reports it:

    Liberal Democrat spokesman Lord Oakeshott used parliamentary privilege today to blow a hole in a gag order obtained by Barclays Bank over its tax avoidance scheme. The documents detailing the schemes, previously leaked to the Lib-Dems, were now available on Wikileaks and other websites, he told a Lords debate on tax avoidance.

    Barclays had previously obtained a high court injunction banning the Guardian and other papers from disclosing that the documents were publicly available on Wikileaks. The gag order, provided by Mr Justice Blake, also forced the Guardian to remove copies of the documents from

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    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

    …

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    Mark Pack

    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,

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    Top Lib Dem donor short-selling bank shares

    By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th January 2009 - 9:43 am

    Late last week, there was a small flurry of media interest in hedge fund Lansdowne Partners:

    A hedge fund run by two Tory donors made a £12million killing in days by exploiting the collapse of Barclays shares, it was revealed yesterday. Financiers Paul Ruddock and David Craigen have donated more than £300,000 to the party, most of it since David Cameron became leader. Within hours of the ban on the controversial practice of short-selling being lifted last Friday, their company Lansdowne Partners sold shares in Barclays worth £28.4million. They were bought back on Wednesday, by which time the bank’s value

    …

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    Alex Foster

    Latest pension scandal to rock government

    By Alex Foster | Sun 4th January 2009 - 11:45 am

    Rupert Jones reports for the Guardian:

    … government ministers’ pension pots are defying the stock market slump and are up by 10% in a year, it emerged this week. Research by the Liberal Democrats revealed that high-profile ministers have pension pots worth more than 10 times the average in the private sector. Gordon Brown has a personal ministerial pension pot of £274,000. Justice secretary Jack Straw’s is £294,000 and chancellor Alistair Darling’s is £235,000. Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman Lord Oakeshott says: “Ministers and mandarins live in a pensions time warp. They look like the first world war general

    …

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    Alix Mortimer

    Ten people who predicted the financial meltdown

    By Alix Mortimer | Wed 15th October 2008 - 8:03 am

    The “I told you so” game continues over at the Times, whose list of the prescient includes an astrologer, two websites and a Russian Marxist economist executed in 1938. Only two UK politicians feature on the list and they are, of course, Vince Cable and Lord Oakeshott (the latter by dint of his warnings about Iceland).

    Let’s hear those questions to the government again:

    1. Vince Cable – deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats

    Here is a question Mr Cable’s posed to Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, during Treasury Questions back in November 2003: “The growth of the British economy is

    …

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    Posted in News | 36 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Labour gets a financial breathing space

    By Mark Pack | Wed 13th August 2008 - 11:25 am

    As The Times reports:

    Labour has pulled itself back from the brink of bankruptcy by restructuring its loans and persuading the bulk of its backers to give the party until 2015 to repay the money.

    Party officials have been locked in frantic negotiations with more than a dozen businessmen who lent Labour £15 million in the run-up to its 2005 election campaign. The loans, which were due to be repaid next year, threatened to sink the party.

    Officials are due to announce the new loan agreements next week…

    A Labour spokesperson said: “We are grateful to all our

    …

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    Posted in News | 5 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Should those who set UK laws also be UK taxpayers? (UPDATED)

    By Mark Pack | Fri 14th March 2008 - 12:08 pm

    I’ve blogged before about Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott’s plans to introduce a bill requiring all members of the House of Lords to be paying taxes in Britain:

    This will increase the pressure on controversial Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft, who promised to become a UK taxpayer when he was appointed to the Lords but hasn’t provided clear evidence that he has kept this promise.

    The bill is having its second reading in the House of Lords today, and Lord Oakeshott has lined up cross-party backing:

    Labour MP Gordon Prentice has agreed to sponsor Lord Oakeshott’s Bill should it pass the Lords

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    Is Nick Clegg right to back the Speaker?

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 25th February 2008 - 6:57 pm

    The House of Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, has found himself in the full glare of unwelcome publicity this weekend, following allegations that he has misused his Parliamentary allowances:

    In the past two weeks it has emerged that some black cab trips made by Mr Martin’s wife to buy food were claimed on expenses, that allowances were claimed for a home he owns outright in Scotland, and that he used air miles earned on official business to buy first-class tickets for some relatives to fly to London over the New Year.”

    As none of this is outside the rules it might not …

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    Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
    Mark Pack

    A Liberal Democrat politician is in The Sun today…

    By Mark Pack | Tue 12th February 2008 - 9:48 am

    … isn’t often a sentence that ends happily (they don’t seem to really like us over there, you know), except of course when it was praise for Ming Campbell’s use of Facebook (which, slightly bizarrely twice triggered the most positive words about Ming that The Sun published during his time as leader).

    Today though brings another exception. Step forward Lord Oakeshott:

    NOT a phrase often heard, but “well done to the Lib Dems” for asking the awkward question about how much civil servants have been paid in redundancies – a mere £500 million as it turns out. So hats off to Lib

    …

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    Mark Pack

    Monday morning miscellany of stories

    By Mark Pack | Mon 11th February 2008 - 11:06 am

    Nick Clegg has spoken out against moves to stop British Olympics athletes from speaking out over China’s human rights record, calling any such ban “a real abdication of our moral responsibility”

    Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott is introducing a bill into the House of Lords to require all its members to be British taxpayers. This will increase the pressure on controversial Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft, who promised to become a UK taxpayer when he was appointed to the Lords but hasn’t provided clear evidence that he has kept this promise.

    James Purnell, he of the photoshopping and staff problems, …

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    Lord Tom McNally

    Leader article: Peer Pressure

    By Lord Tom McNally | Sun 16th December 2007 - 9:55 am

    A dozen years ago, when I first took my seat in the House of Lords, there were a number of self-deprecating jokes which summed up how the country saw the House of Lords and how it saw itself:

    There was the Peer who dreamt he was speaking in the Lords, and when he woke up he was.

    There was the Peer who read the Times Obituary column each morning to make sure his name was not there. If it wasn’t he went in.

    Thus was this anachronistic, quaintly amusing arm of our governance seen by friend and foe alike. It survived, in …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 3 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    A straight choice between Clegg & Huhne?

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 18th October 2007 - 9:47 am

    That’s what it’s looking like with the news that Steve Webb will not be entering the contest to become the next leader of the Liberal Democrats, but instead backing Nick Clegg. (Although John Hemming has also declared, currently it looks unlikely he will reach the required seven nominations by MPs.)

    From what I understand, the following MPs have definitely declared for Chris Huhne, who launched his leadership bid yesterday: Lynne Featherstone, Tom Brake, Sandra Gidley, Martin Horwood and David Howarth (and also Lord Oakeshott).

    Nick Clegg, who will officially declare tomorrow, is backed by Steve, Ed Davey and Sarah Teather, …

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    Posted in Leadership Election and News | Also tagged , and | 62 Comments
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