Ashcroft and William Hague - £100,000,000 of lost tax? Tory sleaze again?

Will 'Lord' Ashcroft succeed in buying the next election?  Is his money going into the marginals?  Is this a major distortion of democracy?  Is this a return to Tory sleaze?  How much tax has he avoided - £100,000,000?  Did William Hague manage the getting of the peera for Ashcroft?  

What will it take to give Hexham and the UK as a whole a clean, honesty, responsible, fair, accountable, modern truly democratic system?  Are the Tories a fit bunch to govern?

The Guardian reported;

Lord Ashcroft has admitted that he is a 'non-dom' - only paying tax on his British income. Photograph: Jon Super/AP

The turmoil at the top of the Tory party over the tax affairs of Lord Ashcroft escalated last night as the former leader, William Hague, admitted he had known "for a few months" that the peer had renegotiated the terms under which he took his place in the House of Lords.

Hague's disclosure put pressure on himself and the party to explain why they have repeatedly evaded questions about the matter in a succession of recent interviews. It also highlighted how Ashcroft, the Conservative deputy chairman, kept his tax status secret for almost a decade from his closest Tory ally and the man who lobbied hardest for his peerage in 2000.

The admission, in a BBC interview, came amid growing signs of tension between the Cameron and Hague camps over Ashcroft, who is central to the party's general election campaign.

Posted via email from Hexham Matters