StephenTall.org

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

The BBC reports:

Conservative donor and deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he is “non-domiciled” for tax in the UK. He said he agreed with David Cameron that anyone sitting in the Lords must be “resident and domiciled” in the UK.

He said he expected “to be sitting in the House of Lords for many years to come”, suggesting his status would change if the Tories win the election. Mr Cameron said, in another statement, he was “pleased” that Lord Ashcroft had decided to clarify his position.

Lord Ashcroft has donated millions of pounds to the Conservatives in recent years, much of which has been spent on campaigns by Tory candidates in marginal seats. He, and senior Conservative Party spokesmen, have refused to say what his tax status was over recent years, saying it was a private matter.

So, at long last, Lord Belize Ashcroft has finally admitted what had long been suspected: that he avoids paying as much tax in the UK as he can. Yet for the past decade he has seen nothing wrong with being a member of the House of Lords who legislates on how the rest of us get taxed, and how the money raised from us is spent.

As Chris Huhne commented back in December:

… it looks increasingly like the Tories see taxes as something that happens to other people. … If Zac Goldsmith must give up his non-dom status to stand for Parliament, how can Lord Ashcroft be a non-dom and sit in Parliament?”