Political monopoly: does Ashcroft know no bounds?

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

We all know that Michael Ashcroft is an influential figure in a world where, unfortunately, money still talks.

Last month the Tory chairman invested £1.3milion in ConservativeHome and acquired a majority stake in popular web-aggregator PoliticsHome.

Ashcroft’s monopolising of the online sphere has already been the cause of much consternation, with members of PoliticsHome’s panel of 100 MPs, activists and journalists resigning in numbers in protest over the Tory chair’s involvement.

But it’s now been revealed in Tribune that Lord Ashcroft also made a bid to buy LabourHome a year ago, and that the site “came within a whisker” of being taken over by the Tory peer.

Alex Hilton, the editor of LabourHome said:

“If this had gone through, I would now be working for a company part-owned by Michael Ashcroft in the run-up to a general election, running Labour activist blogs. It was a close call.”