Lord Ashcroft's Tax Status Damages Tory Election Prospects

The Conservative Party of the UK is in danger of wasting one of the greatest electoral opportunities one can remember. Having tried to shed the title of the Mean Party under David Cameron, they are in danger of remaining the Party of the Rich and Connected. Nowhere has this lack of change been more apparent than in the tax status of Lord Ashcroft, the Deputy Chairman and bankroller of the party. It looks like the sleaze factor has returned, and the Conservative's lead over Labour in the polls is shrinking.

For those unfamiliar with the case, Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, KCMG, is a billionaire (in pounds sterling) having made his money in slot machines, security and contract cleaning. He was educated in Britain, but because his father was a British colonial civil servant, he also spent time in Malawi and Belize (British Honduras). His relationship to Belize is at the heart of the matter. When he was made a life peer in 2000, it was done on the understanding that he would become a resident, domiciled taxpayer in the UK, giving up his status as being domiciled in Belize. Ten years on, he is still legally a "non-domiciled" resident of the UK. That means that he pays taxes only on his UK business income. Most of his money is out of the country.

Now, one must be clear that there is no allegation of illegality. No one has suggested that Lord Ashcroft is guilty of tax evasion. What is going on is the apparent failure by Lord Ashcroft to keep his word about his tax situation. When he was trying to secure the peerage (and he had been turned down twice), he wrote to the chairman of the Honours Scrutiny Committee, Lord Thomson of Monifieth, on March 22, 2000, "I hereby give you my clear and unequivocal assurance that I have decided to take up permanent residence in the UK again." Before the month was out, Lord Ashcroft was on the list of new working peers.

Mr. Cameron has done a pretty decent job of making the Tory Party look modern (at least a late 20th century party), and his own approach is less high-handed than recent conservative leaders. Perhaps, this is because he is a toff (for American readers, he's from money, and exudes an air of deserving it), educated at Eton and Oxford. Because of this (his ability to view the Royals as a rather awful middle-class German family), he doesn't feel the need to prove he's upper crust. The trouble is, most Brits still feel class divisions and carry some resentment toward what once would have been called "their betters."

Lord Ashcroft's tax shenanigans merely remind the average British voter who the Conservatives really are. Mr. Cameron can called his brand of Toryism "modern compassionate conservatism," but off-share tax issues merely undermine that. It really is the same old bunch of reactionaries who worry more about their money than anything else. And that's a shame because Britain deserves better and so do Tory voters.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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