Straw: Tories have been concealing the truth for ten years to help buy the election

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Jack Straw has issued a strong statement saying that for ten years the Conservative Party has been “concealing the truth” to help the Tories “buy the election”.

The statement reads:

“Lord Ashcroft was initially turned down for a peerage. He was only granted his peerage on the basis that he would return to live in the UK, become fully resident, and that he would pay tax in the UK on his wider income.

“Today Lord Ashcroft has been forced to admit that he has not complied with this promise and that for the last ten years the Conservatives have been concealing the truth.

“Instead of paying tax in the UK on all his earned income, he has been channelling millions into the Conservative Party to help them buy this election. This is precisely what you’d expect from the old Tory party of the 80s and 90s. It just goes to show that rather than having really changed his party, David Cameron has kept it as it was.

“Today David Cameron claims he proposed to change the law to force peers to pay full tax. He did not. The Tories’ initial amendment left open an ‘Ashcroft loophole’, which would have allowed non-dom peers to avoid paying tax on their foreign income. Instead, it was this Labour Government which took action to ensure that in future every peer and MP is treated as a fully resident UK taxpayer.”

Further attacks on Ashcroft have come from the Lib Dems, whose home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne passionately told Sky News that it is inappropriate that a “tax dodger from Belize should be able to buy the Tory Party as if it’s a banana republic.”

Michael White at the Guardian says the revelation is “a blow to David Cameron’s efforts to detox his party’s image”.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Lord Paul told Radio 4 it was “ridiculous” for right wing media to compare him to Lord Ashcroft:

“I think it’s really ridiculous for anybody to start comparing me with anybody…I have [been] one of the most open persons for the last 30 years that I am non-domiciled…I have never hidden the fact.”

Lord Paul said he paid “the bulk” of his taxes in the UK and had only ever donated to Labour through a company of which he is chairman, and which pays taxes in the UK.