Conservatives Sabotage investigation into Ashcroft Peerage
The Conservatives have sabotaged attempts to get to the bottom of process that lead to Lord Ashcroft, their multi-millionaire donor, being awarded a peerage. In an unprecedented move, Conservative MPs have withdrawn from the public administration select committee, allegedly under pressure from Conservative Party Whips.
The committees investigation into Lord Ashcroft was started after revelations that he had "non-domicilled" status for tax purposes and had been able to negotiate retaining this status for tax purposes whilst still being regarded as living in the UK for the purposes of securing his peerage.
The three Tory members of the committee, David Burrowes, Ian Liddell-Grainger and Charles Walker, will not be attending any further meetings this parliament, whilst Lord Ashcroft himself has failed to respond to an invitation to attend the committee according to the Observer.
The committee chairman is reported as commenting, "We are not interested in the party political dimension of this but we are interested in trying to get to the bottom of an issue about propriety that has remained unresolved for the best part of a decade."