Lord Ashcroft has a long roll-call of dislikes – paying tax, answering simple questions, being criticised by judges or the press. Sadly, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill may soon have to be added to the list.
The legislation, currently going through the Lords, has been described as a ‘Christmas Tree bill’, thanks to the number of new clauses ‘hung on it’ since it started life in the Commons. Two of the decorations will be particularly unwelcome for Ashcroft.
Firstly, the Bill sets out clear procedures for removing peers who break the rules and lose the trust of the people in the country they are meant to serve. For the first time, Lords who flout the law or bring the House into disrepute will face the real possibility of being chucked out.
A decade ago, the Conservatives had to fight hard to convince a very dubious independent honours committee that Ashcroft should finally be allowed his much longed-for peerage, because of his questionable business arrangements. His ennoblement only went ahead when Ashcroft gave full, written assurances that he would get his tax and residency status in order.
Now we learn – to no real surprise – that Ashcroft is in fact still a ‘non-dom’ and has continued to avoid paying tens of millions of pounds in taxes on his income. His own party leader, David Cameron, now says that non-doms should not sit in the House of Lords. What will this mean for Baron Ashcroft?
But there’s a second and, for Ashcroft, far more worrying clause in the Constitutional Renewal bill: a referendum on the voting system.
The strings attached to the massive donations Lord Ashcroft has made to the Tories over the years have of course been to give him huge control over the Party’s constituency campaigns for the up-coming election. Ashcroft’s strategy has been to focus relentlessly on the marginal seats – the 100-odd seats that, under Britain’s out-dated first-past-the-post voting system, will decide the next election.
The fact that FPTP encourages politicians of all parties to ignore people living in the 500+ safe seats and concentrate all their efforts on the few thousand floating voters in each of the marginals is a scandal.
It distorts what policies parties will support. It makes voting a virtual waste of time for millions of people across the country. And it allows a billionaire businessman to target a tiny minority of people – the marginals’ floating voters – in a way that will very possibly decide who wins the election.
When the political fate of the nation lies in so few hands, the money men are bound to try to exploit the situation. First-past-the-post leaves the UK open to undue influence from wealthy, secretive people with their own private agenda.
No wonder the public, already sickened by the expenses scandal, are backing a referendum for a new voting system. Democracy should not be up for sale. If reformers are serious about fixing the voting system, we have to step up the pressure on the House of Lords to pass the bill ahead of the election. That means now.
Photo: UK Parliament 2008