Taxing question

LORD ASHCROFT has been a huge boon to the Tory Party. Since David Cameron became leader, the peer has given more than £4m to promote Conservative campaigning in marginal seats, becoming a particularly painful thorn in Labour's side.

Now, however, the deputy chairman risks becoming an embarrassment rather than an asset following his revelation that, for tax purposes, he is classed as non-domiciled in the UK.

There has, of course, been much speculation about this for several years and it is particularly damaging that not only did Lord Ashcroft refuse to come clean much earlier, but even now it appears that the information has had to be dragged out of him following a Freedom of Information request.

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Voters are naturally suspicious of politicians who are both wealthy and unelected and such feelings are heightened still further when there is also the whiff of a cover-up.

At the same time, however, Lord Ashcroft's situation needs to be put into perspective. As the Tories are hardly the only party to have benefited from donations from so-called non-doms, there is something hypocritical about the way in which the Conservative peer has been hounded, even though his protracted silence on the issue has contributed to the Tories' discomfiture. Indeed, there is a lesson for all parties in this – the only way to retain voters' trust and avoid the embarrassment now being suffered by the Conservatives is to insist on complete transparency.

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