CAMMIE DODGER
PM avoids ‘porkies’ quiz on peer
SQUIRMING David Cameron has dodged mounting questions over whether he lied about billionaire Tory Lord Ashcroft’s tax affairs.
Grilled at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Cameron would not say if he had told “porkies” about the Tory megadonor’s “non-dom” status.
The PM has insisted he only found out in 2010 that Lord Ashcroft was registered abroad for tax purposes.
The issue was embarrassing for Mr Cameron at the time as the billionaire was bankrolling his campaign to oust Gordon Brown from No 10.
But in his controversial biography of Mr Cameron this month, Lord Ashcroft claims he explained his tax affairs to the PM in 2009.
The“nondomiciled” arrangement allowed the peer to pay no UK tax on foreign earnings, even though he sat in the House of Lords.
Speaking at PMQs yesterday, Labour MP Kevin Brennan asked Mr Cameron about the book’s claim: “Clearly someone’s telling porkies. Is it him, or Lord Ashcroft?”
But the PM ducked the question, telling Mr Brennan: “I would think of many better uses of his time than reading that book.”
Fol lowing the exchange, Mr Cameron’s spokesman was asked 11 times when the PM had learned Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom, but failed to give a straight answer.
Shadow Cabinet minister Jon Ashworth said: “It’s beginning to look like the Prime Minister has something to hide.”
He later wrote to Mr Cameron urging him to come clean, saying: “You must agree that accusations of impropriety, when unanswered, undermine trust in our politics.”
Lord Ashcroft claims he “discussed the matter in detail” with Mr Cameron in 2009. He insisted: “We had a
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