LDV reported earlier this morning on the BBC story that leaked Cabinet Office documents suggest Tory shdaow foreign secretary William Hague was aware of, and approved, the terms of the deal under which Lord Ashcroft gained his place in the upper house.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning, Mr Hague was forced to concede he had made a “mistake” when he said that Lord Ashcroft’s promises upon becoming a peer would have cost him “tens of millions of pounds” with its clear implication that Lord Ashcroft would end his non-dom status when he became a peer of the realm.
As Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb immediately tweeted:
Interview with Hague was incredible! He has to go! And did Cameron really not know until a few weeks ago?
And Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has issued the following statement also calling on Mr Hague to quit or be sacked:
William Hague promised the Prime Minister that before Lord Ashcroft received his peerage he would pay “tens of millions” in British tax, but then never even checked whether the promise was kept. He has treated the taxpayer with total contempt.
“It is utterly unbelievable to say, as William Hague did this morning, that he was not aware of the tax implications of these negotiations that dragged on for four months when he was kept informed by his closest loyalist, the Chief Whip.
“Mr Hague is guilty of a cynical cover-up for a shabby decision which has cost British taxpayers more than £100 million.
“William Hague is not fit for any role in Government, let alone that of Foreign Secretary. Lord Ashcroft must now meet his £100 million tax bill.”
This story isn’t over yet.
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Sir Hayden Phillips GCB agreed with Gordon Prentice earlier today that he [Hayden Phillips] wasn’t an unintelligent or naive person. Hayden Phillips has been described as a “famously deft Whitehall figure to whom colleagues offer admiring tributes like ‘the mandarin’s mandarin’; a man who has ‘supped the royal jelly of ministerial private offices’ for 30 years’.” He has also been described as ‘the last of a breed’. I’d like to think so. But I very much doubt it. And I certainly wouldn’t count on it if those who dispense (and have dispensed) the ‘royal jelly of ministerial private offices’, who are certainly not the last of their breed, are allowed to remain in place.
I have to agree with Harriet Harman at Business Questions today when she pointed out the discrepancy between Hague’s appearance on “Today” and his unwillingness to be questioned by his peers in the House of Commons. Mind you, New Labour set the precedent for ranking the advertising of their case in the media above having it examined in parliament.
What a load of rubbish. So Ashcroft has done nothing wrong, so lets forget Ashcroft and attack Hague !!!
Today’s documents confirm that in order to secure a peerage Ashcroft promised to become a “permanent resident”. In negotiations spanning from May to June 2000 he persuaded officials from the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet Office that he did not need to become a full UK taxpayer.
He could, instead, become a “long term resident” paying tax here on his UK but not his worldwide earnings. Hague was told all of this.
The panel also heard from former Whitehall mandarin Sir Hayden Phillips, who oversaw an agreement that later amended Ashcroft’s assurance so he would become a “long-term” rather than “permanent” UK resident.
That cleared the way for him to claim non-dom status, which the Lib Dems estimate saved Ashcroft more than £120m.
Gordon Prentice, a member of the administration committee, told Phillips he had accepted “hook, line and sinker” an assurance from the then Conservative chief whip, James Arbuthnot, who took part in the negotiations, that domicility was not an important issue.
Phillips says he wasn’t there to interpret Ashcroft’s precise tax status. But he said the final wording agreed between the honours committee and the Tories should have been clearer. “I acknowledge that was in hindsight a mistake in the process,” he said.
Hayden conceded there had been no one to “police” Aschroft’s undertakings to ensure “the full set of reassurances” were followed through.
Nobody is forgiving Ashcroft, but he is not up for election. Hague and his fellow-MPs are. The spotlight therefore falls upon Cameron and Hague’s judgment and integrity.
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[…] he was Tory leader. After an extended ten year smoke and mirrors exhibition, we now discover he has shown abysmal judgment over Lord Ashcroft, who has been paying for his foreign flights and accompanying him on foreign […]