Ex-treasurer insists he abided by rules of offshore trust

Former Conservative treasurer Lord Ashcroft has insisted that he did not ignore rules in relation to an offshore trust, after claims that the leaked Paradise Papers suggest he was using it to shelter his wealth.

Scores of documents relating to the Punta Gorda Trust were included in a vast cache of information leaked from Bermuda-based legal firm Appleby.

The BBC reported the new information reveals that Lord Ashcroft remained a “non-dom” after joining the House of Lords, and was domiciled in Belize for tax purposes at a time it was widely believed he had given up on the status.

The allegations were expected to feature in BBC One’s Panorama investigation Offshore Secrets of the Rich Exposed.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that “scores” of leaked emails and financial statements show hundreds of millions of pounds passing through the trust, which was established in 2000.

The paper stressed that there was nothing illegal about the trust.

Lord Ashcroft pledged to become a permanent resident of the UK, and liable to British taxes, when he joined the House of Lords in 2000, in a move which then Tory leader William Hague said would cost him tens of millions of pounds in tax.

Controversy over his admission in 2010 that he was still a non-dom led to a change in the law forcing anyone sitting in Parliament to pay full British tax.

According to the BBC, the Paradise Papers suggest Lord Ashcroft’s offshore trust bought shares worth £33.9 million from one of his companies in 2010, when he was not liable for capital gains tax because of his non-dom status.

Lord Ashcroft was domiciled in Belize for tax purposes.