Osborne anger over Ashcroft quiz

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Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has insisted Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs are a matter for him and accused the media of bias in asking about them.

He said similar questions should be asked about Labour donor Lord Paul, thought to be non-domiciled for tax.

Senior Tories have faced growing calls to say where Lord Ashcroft, deputy party chairman and donor, pays tax.

Tory chairman Eric Pickles told the BBC he did not know the peer's tax status but, if he did, he would say.

In a forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary on party funding, Mr Pickles says he is "alarmed" by comments from the Information Commissioner, who accused the Conservatives of "obfuscatory" answers on Ashcroft.

But he stops short of urging his deputy to be more open, telling presenter Ann McElvoy: "That's a matter for him to consider. Lord Aschcroft is entitled to his privacy."

Business interests

He adds: "I do not know what his tax status is. If I did, I would certainly tell you."

Paying the Party airs at 2000 GMT on Monday.

Lord Ashcroft has donated millions of pounds to the Conservatives in recent years, much of which has been spent on campaigns by Tory candidates in marginal seats.

But his donations are the subject of an Electoral Commission investigation over claims the company through which they were made - Bearwood Corporate Services - is in breach of electoral law for not "carrying on business" in Britain.

Lord Ashcroft, who has always declined to comment on his tax status, is known to have extensive business interests in Belize.

In an interview on Sky News' Sunday Live, Mr Osborne appeared frustrated when he was repeatedly asked whether he knew about Lord Ashcroft's tax status.

"You have Labour politicians on this show every Sunday and you never ask them that question," he said.

"So why don't you ask them that question and then we will see if there is an equivalent balance in where you ask these questions."

'Legitimate questions'

Mr Osborne insisted Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs were a private matter: "We live in a country where people are entitled to a private relationship with the Inland Revenue."

The shadow chancellor added that the Conservatives were proposing a change in the law to ensure only full UK taxpayers could sit in Parliament.

"It's also the Conservative Party asking perfectly legitimate questions about whether Lord Paul, who is a big donor to the Labour Party, is a non-dom," he said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the Conservative Party have "questions they have to answer" over Lord Ashcroft.

The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, has ordered the Cabinet Office to release the full details of the undertaking Lord Ashcroft gave concerning his tax status when he was made a Conservative life peer in 2000.

He said the public was entitled to know whether Lord Ashcroft had actually fulfilled the undertaking he had given.