Hague-Ashcroft (From The Northern Echo)

Hague-Ashcroft

10:13am Friday 12th March 2010 in

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Richmond MP William Hague got Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft a peerage on the basis that he would become resident in this country for tax purposes in the year 2000.

Since then, has Mr Hague never asked the billionaire party donor if he had ever become resident in Britain for tax purposes?

Mr Hague has been quizzed on this dozens of times, but his answer has always been: “I have no reason to think he has not complied with the commitments that he gave.”

Disingenuous or what?

Perhaps he did not want to ask the question, because he knew he would not like the answer?

It’s not as if he did not have the opportunity for a quiet word.

Despite not being part of the Tory foreign affairs team, it appears that Lord Ashcroft, at his own expense, has flown Mr Hague to meetings with foreign officials at least five times in recent years.

The former head of the Civil Service, Lord Turnbull, has stated that it was Mr Hague’s responsibility, as Lord Ashcroft’s “sponsor”, to ensure Lord Ashcroft fulfilled the undertakings he gave in return for his peerage.

We residents of Richmond expect better from our MP.

In former times, an MP would already have done the honourable thing and resigned.

Leslie Rowe, Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Richmond.