News from The Labour Party

William Hague and David Cameron’s hypocrisy

David Miliband MP, Labour’s Foreign Secretary responding to the latest comments by William Hague on Lord Ashcroft said:

“Last night on Any Questions we heard the latest twist in William Hague’s dance of the seven veils on Lord Ashcroft’s peerage. He now admits that he knew 10 years ago that Lord Ashcroft was only planning to pay tax on his UK income – contrary to all the efforts of the authorities to regularise Ashcroft’s tax status and to William Hague’s own claim that Ashcroft would pays “tens of millions” in tax.

“Why did Hague conceal this for 10 years? When did David Cameron find out and why did he do nothing about this when he did so?

“Today David Cameron is giving a speech about taking on vested interests but if he was serious about change or tackling vested interests, David Cameron would sack Lord Ashcroft. The truth is that David Cameron has bowed down in front of the spending power of Lord Ashcroft. He has no credibility in taking on vested interests in the country when he cannot tackle them in his own party.

“Not only is David Cameron incapable of standing up to the billionaire bankrolling his party, we learn today that senior Conservatives have sought to stop the BBC from showing a documentary about Lord Ashcroft’s interests in Belize and in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“As for William Hague, the questions mount – about why he reneged on the pledge that Ashcroft would pay “tens of millions” in tax and why he is being flown round the world as shadow Foreign Secretary by Lord Ashcroft and why he takes him into meetings with foreign officials.”