Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale, Paul Rowen and a Member of the Public Administration Select Committee, has raised fresh questions over Lord Ashcroft’s peerage in a committee inquiry on Thursday. 

The Commons Public Administration Committee met to investigate the circumstances surrounding the award of a peerage to Ashcroft.

The meeting investigated the dialogue Ashcroft had with the government about his post-peerage tax status and what steps were taken to make sure the conditions attached to the peerage were fulfilled.

Lord Ashcroft has donated more than £4million to the Conservatives in recent years since being recommended for a peerage by then Tory leader William Hague in 2000. Controversy has arisen due to his status of being a non-UK resident for tax purposes.

Lord Ashcroft is estimated to have saved more than £127million in British tax since he became a member of the House of Lords, according to Liberal Democrat. Lord Ashcroft’s annual tax saving is conservatively estimated to be £12.76million and he has been a member of the House of Lords for a decade.

Paul Rowen MP, speaking after the meeting said:

“From the written and verbal evidence given today by both Sir Hayden Phillips and Baroness Dean, it is clear that both Lord Ashcroft and the Conservative Party contrived to mislead both the Political Honours Committee and the senior Civil Servant responsible for new peers. There was no agreement or discussion with the Government and Lord Ashcroft’s ‘non-dom’ status was as clear as mud.

It is also clear that William Hague, then Conservative Leader, was fully aware of these arrangements.

This whole episode is deeply damaging to politics in general and the Conservative Party in particular. It is yet another example of cash for honours.”