Hague ignores demands in Ashcroft row
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Your support makes all the difference.Lord Ashcroft's tax status has returned to haunt the Tories after it emerged that William Hague has ignored repeated demands to clarify when he learnt that the peer was not paying tax on his overseas fortune.
A parliamentary inquiry was launched after a last-minute deal allowed Lord Ashcroft to keep his non-domiciled tax status, despite a pledge to become a permanent resident in Britain in order to take up his seat in the House of Lords. But Mr Hague, a close friend of the peer, has refused to clarify his knowledge of Lord Ashcroft’s arrangements and the privileged access he has given the billionaire on his official foreign visits.
Mr Hague has ignored three separate letters sent by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, questioning him on the issue. Mr Hague has appeared to give differing accounts of when he learnt of Lord Ashcroft’s tax status. He initially said he found out earlier this year, later suggesting he had known from the time the deal was struck.
In the letters, sent on 21 and 29 March, and 6 April, Mr Miliband asks: “Why did you say in my presence on March 4th that you learnt ‘a few months ago’ that Lord Ashcroft was not paying tax on overseas earnings because of his non-domiciled tax status, when in fact you admitted on Friday night (March 19th) on Any Questions that you knew this to be the case from 2000?”
The Foreign Secretary also asks: “On the occasions when Lord Ashcroft has flown you, or others, around the world has he participated in meetings with foreign officials with you in countries where he has business interests?” The party has already admitted that Lord Ashcroft accompanied Mr Hague during an official shadow Foreign Office trip to Cuba. The peer has also met Chinese officials with Mr Hague.
It is understood Lord Ashcroft will step down as the party’s deputy chairman after the election. “The Tories were talking about the Great Ignored,” Mr Miliband said. “Well I’m feeling like one of the ignored – three times I have written to William Hague requesting an answer to simple questions about his relationship to Lord Ashcroft. It is time for him to come clean.”
A spokesman for the Conservatives did not wish to comment on the unanswered letters.
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