While Gordon Brown’s coat hangs on a loose nail on the back of Number Ten’s door, Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, and other Liberal heavyweights, are using a hive mind to consider the Conservatives’ offer for a coalition government.
I am not an expert on electoral systems or our constitution. But what I have taken in over the last week, from those who are experts; Bogdanor, Hennessy, Kellner – all familiar from our reading lists – has enlightened me to the machinations of a hung parliament. But the Liberal Democrats joining up with the Conservatives? I don’t think so!
All through the election coverage, Clegg has stated that his party’s central tenet is for change to the electoral system. This is an impasse that Cameron and his cronies are not going to yield to. Furthermore, the idea that the Liberal Democrats who despise Thatcherite politics (nod to Nick Robinson) who now – in an historic position of power – are going to be happy with a backroom office at Tory HQ is absurd.
Clegg has indicated that the broken politics that has plagued Britain for so long “simply doesn’t reflect the hopes and aspirations of the British people” adding “I will continue to argue not only for the greater fairness in British society, not only the greater responsibility in economic policy making but also for the extensive real reforms that we need to fix our political system”.
And some people have a short memory. Isn’t Cameron’s golden goose, Lord Ashcroft – who funded the Conservatives’ fight for marginal seats – under investigation into his tax affairs and residential status? And who do you think initiated this investigation?
Liberal Democrats
Contact: Press Office – 020 7340 4949
Embargo: Immediate, Tuesday 2 March 2010
Liberal Democrats call for probe into Ashcroft’s missing taxes – Huhne
The Liberal Democrats have called on the Revenue and Customs to assess Lord Ashcroft’s back tax payments as his commitment to permanent residence conflicts with non-dom status.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne has written to the Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs to ask for an investigation of Lord Ashcroft’s back taxes for the ten years since he made his undertakings.
Mr Huhne estimates that the tax savings by Lord Ashcroft from non-dom status are likely to be £127m over the period. His fortune is estimated at £1.1bn.
Notes to Editors:
The text of the full letter to the Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs is below:
Ms Lesley Strathie
Chief Executive
HM Revenue and Customs
100 Parliament StreetLondon
SW1
Dear Ms Strathie,
I am writing to ask that you investigate the tax affairs of Lord Ashcroft to ensure that he pays full UK taxes on his worldwide income from the tax year 2000-2001 and that his status as a non-domiciled taxpayer is rendered void.
My reason for suggesting this is simply that, on 23 March 2000, Lord Ashcroft set out various undertakings in a memorandum to William Hague, then the Conservative party leader. This was part of the agreement under which Lord Ashcroft took up his working peerage and therefore his position as a legislator in this country. Lord Ashcroft stated: “I hereby give you my clear and unequivocal assurance that I have decided to take up permanent residence in the UK again before the end of this calendar year….These are my solemn and binding undertakings to you.”
If you have taken up permanent residence, this implies of course that you are going to live somewhere forever, as would be appropriate for someone who receives a peerage for life. However, I am advised that this would be incompatible with non-dom status in British tax law, which requires that there is a commitment to living or being attached to some other country at some point in the future.
Perhaps because of this, Lord Ashcroft states in yesterday’s public statement: “In subsequent dialogue with the Government, it was officially confirmed that the interpretation in the first undertaking of the words “permanent residence” was to be that of “a long term resident” of the UK. I agreed to this and finally took up my seat in the House of Lords in October 2000”.
Having declared his permanent residence as a solemn and binding undertaking, and particularly in view of the recent judgements in the cases in the Court of Appeal of Robert Gaines-Cooper and HMRC (16th February 2010), and in the High Court of Robert Gaines-Cooper and HMRC (13th November 2007), could you confirm that any permanent resident should pay full UK tax on worldwide income? Since Lord Ashcroft’s worldwide income on an estimated fortune of £1.1 billion is likely to be at least £55 million a year, and the tax savings from non-dom status was likely over ten years to exceed £127 million, this is an important and urgent policy matter. I would be grateful for an early reply.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Huhne MP
Thankyou Dominic Kennedy!
So to expect the Lib Dems to drop their guard and forget the opaque politics of Conservative nepotism is highly unlikely.
Lord Ashcroft speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Neil said that any kind of negative publicity surrounding a party has an “adverse” affect for a while, but he doesn’t think it made any real difference.
