This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/8573771.stm
The article has changed 20 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 5 | Version 6 |
|---|---|
| No 'secret' Ashcroft deal - Hague | No 'secret' Ashcroft deal - Hague |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Former Conservative leader William Hague has denied any "secret" deal was done over Lord Ashcroft's tax status. | Former Conservative leader William Hague has denied any "secret" deal was done over Lord Ashcroft's tax status. |
| The Tory donor was made a peer in 2000 after undertaking to become a permanent UK resident, which was widely believed to mean he would be a full UK taxpayer. | The Tory donor was made a peer in 2000 after undertaking to become a permanent UK resident, which was widely believed to mean he would be a full UK taxpayer. |
| But Mr Hague told the BBC leaked papers showed No 10 knew the agreed deal had not included the peer's tax status. | But Mr Hague told the BBC leaked papers showed No 10 knew the agreed deal had not included the peer's tax status. |
| He admitted it had been a "mistake" to say the agreement "would cost Lord Ashcroft millions" in extra tax. | |
| "The one thing I will concede on this - and which I think in retrospect was a mistake - was to say tens of millions because it may have cost him millions. We don't know, it may cost him millions into the future," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. | |
| "None of us can know - other than him, I suppose, and the tax authorities - what it has cost. | "None of us can know - other than him, I suppose, and the tax authorities - what it has cost. |
| "But it was certainly an important change for him to go from being not resident in the UK." | "But it was certainly an important change for him to go from being not resident in the UK." |
| There has been a long-running row over Lord Ashcroft's tax status, focusing on when the Conservative leadership knew he was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes after he acknowledged being a "non dom" last month. | |
| Mr Hague, who nominated Lord Ashcroft for a peerage when he was Tory leader, said the documents "vindicated" his argument that Lord Ashcroft had abided by the undertakings he had given at the time. | |
| "The idea that this was a secret Tory deal for Lord Ashcroft to avoid whatever people thought he should have paid is rather blown apart by the knowledge this was all copied to Downing Street," he told BBC Radio 4's Today. | |
| 'Backbone' | |
| Mr Hague's comments came ahead of a Commons hearing by the Public Administration Committee into the arrangements and undertakings surrounding Lord Ashcroft's peerage. | Mr Hague's comments came ahead of a Commons hearing by the Public Administration Committee into the arrangements and undertakings surrounding Lord Ashcroft's peerage. |
| The Conservatives are boycotting the hearing and have protested to the chairman of the committee over what they say is a "partisan" inquiry. | The Conservatives are boycotting the hearing and have protested to the chairman of the committee over what they say is a "partisan" inquiry. |
| Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said the leaked document showed William Hague and Tory leader David Cameron had been "economical with the truth" and had not had "the courage to stand up to Lord Ashcroft" over his tax status. | |
| The Labour peer told Sky News: "I don't know what sort of hold Lord Ashcroft has over David Cameron that he could not find the backbone, the bottle, to ask the relevant questions. In my view, that says rather a lot about David Cameron." | |
| Lord Ashcroft has pumped millions of pounds of his own money into the Conservative Party over the years and in 2005 was made its deputy chairman, with responsibility for targeting marginal seats at the general election. |