16 Dec 2009

Cable describes Ashcroft as a ‘non-dom’ at PMQs, but where’s the evidence?

UPDATED: Now with video. Vince Cable referred to Lord Ashcroft as a “non-dom” in (deputy) Prime Minister’s Question Time, but he did it in a kind of aside.

He didn’t wave around documentary evidence of the allegation.

Harriet Harman didn’t quite get it right when describing the requirements that the Lords Appointments Commission put on Lord Ashcroft when he took a peerage.

He was not required to be “ordinarily resident” for tax purposes, as she put it.

Ms Harman was then silenced by the Speaker for trying to put a party political question to the Tories.

The Liberal Democrats will now be under pressure to prove their allegation and produce evidence of the HMRC leak they are muttering about behind the scenes.

Until they do that, the Tory high command will probably stick to the longstanding stonewalling answers on Lord Ashcroft, saying he is conforming with the (not very strict) requirements placed on him.

This isn’t over yet.

Related: ‘Lord Ashcroft is a non-dom’, Lib Dems to allege in parliament

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