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"The independent-minded and fearless Pendle MP is the hero of the Cashcroft affair"

The Mirror, March 2010

MP Steps up Campaign to Rid Parliament of Tax Exiles

Tags: Press Release | tax exile

Monday, 07 April 2008 00:00

Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, has asked the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, to order the release of documents relating to the enoblement of Michael Ashcroft, now Lord Ashcroft, in March 2000. Ashcroft, a major Conservative Party donor, refuses to say whether he pays tax in the UK. He is based in Belize. But in March 2000, a statement from 10 Downing Street said that Ashcroft had given a clear and unequivocal undertaking that his tax affairs would be brought onshore by the end of that year (2000). The MP wants to know the form the undertaking took and to whom it was given. The MP said: "Michael Ashcroft got into the House of Lords at his third attempt having been blocked by the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee on two previous occasions when he was nominated by the then Conservative leader, Michael Howard. He was elevated to the peerage after William Hague nominated him, as a consequence of an undertaking he had given. There is no good reason why the terms of this undertaking should remain shrouded in secrecy." The MP's request for this information was considered and turned down by the Cabinet Secretary, Gus O'Donnell. The MP appealed, asking for an internal Cabinet Office review carried out by the Department's top civil servant, but this too failed. It is now open to the MP to go to the Information Commissioner - the man who recently ordered the publication of MPs' expenses. The MP added: "I have a Bill before Parliament at the moment which would exclude tax exiles such as the Conservative peer, Lord Laidlaw, from being a Member of the House of Lords. And I also intend to move an amendment to the Government's Constitutional Reform Bill to this effect. It is scandalous that people can make our laws but not pay our taxes." The MP has long maintained that Ashcroft money is being used to bankroll expensive long running Conservative campaigns in marginal constituencies such as Pendle. "Belize money, filtered through Conservative Central Office, is paying for an endless cascade of newsletters delivered by the Royal Mail to every household in Pendle. That doesn't come cheap."