In his response to a letter from me, Tory candidate for South Swindon Robert Buckland has revealed that his campaign has received funding from Lord Ashcroft, the disgraced Tory donor. Mr Buckland admitted that his campaign has received financial support from the Tory Party Marginal Seats Fund that is bank-rolled by Lord Ashcroft, who does not pay full tax in the UK.
I am glad that Mr Buckland has come clean about how he is paying for his glossy leaflets with the dodgy donations from Lord Ashcroft. He needs to know that the people of Swindon will not let this election be bought by someone who has not fulfilled commitments to become a UK taxpayer.
In my letter to Mr Buckland I asked him to pay back any money that came from Lord Ashcroft, unfortunately he refused to answer this question. My leaflets are paid for by small donations from local people in Swindon and all donations to the local and national Labour Party are declared with complete transparency.
Why should a billionaire who does not pay full taxes in this country be allowed to buy the election in places like Swindon?
Lord Ashcroft has donated over £5,000,000 to the Tory Party and plays a key role in their election strategy. He also regularly accompanies leading Tory MPs on trips abroad. It is estimated that Lord Ashcroft has avoided over £100million of tax in the UK.
David Cameron has proposed banning any ‘non-doms’ in the Houses of Parliament but It seems that he is happy to accept money from Lord Ashcroft to bank-roll his campaign.
Donate to Anne’s campaign in Swindon South
Candidate: Anne Snelgrove
Seat: Swindon South
Currently held by: Labour
Majority: 1565
Candidate website: http://www.annesnelgrove.co.uk/
Disgraced Tory donor? Says who – Gordon Brown and his lackeys who have destroyed this country. Ashcrofts donations have been ruled within the law. Which part of this dont you understand? If I read the media accurately he pays tax on earnings he makes in the UK and pays tax on his other earnings in countries where revenue is generated. For the uninformed that would be situation normal for many. Lets face it would you like to give more money to Gordon Brown to waste than he currently has?
Henry,
>Disgraced Tory donor? Says who –
“Lord” Ashcroft is disgraced because he was twice refused a peerage on the grounds that he didn’t live in the UK or pay taxes here. He only got it third time round because he promised to do both. William Hague said that doing so would cost Ashcroft tens of millions of pounds a year. It now turns out Ashcroft has done neither – which you may not think is disgraceful, but many people do. Note how different Labour’s non-dom Lord Paul is incidentally – he lives here, pays tax here and was never refused an honour here. That’s the way it should be done.
>Ashcrofts donations have been ruled within the law
Nope. They couldn’t be proved to be illegal a) because Conservative party officials refused to attend the hearing and b) because the sources of the funds were companies in Belize, which is a secrecy jurisdiction. Which is also why you can’t say:
>[he] pays tax on his other earnings in countries where revenue is generated.
Not in Belize he doesn’t because Belize raises very little in taxes and will not disclose anything about companies based there.
>he pays tax on earnings he makes in the UK
He has little or no earnings in the UK. He doesn’t get paid for doing work here, so isn’t taxed on paid income (again unlike Lord Paul). His companies here either make losses or very small profits.
I don’t doubt that everything he has done is within the law, but that doesn’t stop him being a disgrace. Moreover David Cameron has forced out of office a number of his MPs over the expenses “scandal” none of whom had broken the law as far as I kinow (in fact very very few MPs *had* broken the law over expenses). He did so because he said their behaviour was unacceptable and disgraceful.
Pete