12/07/2013 00:00
TW
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by RAY FLEMING
LORD Ashcroft's announcement yesterday that he has given up his “non-dom” tax status in order to be able to remain as a member of the House of Lords brings to an end an incident that proved unnecessarily awkward for the Conservative Party. Lord Ashcroft has been the biggest donor to the party for many years and has also held the position of deputy chairman. It was ten years ago that questions were first asked about his tax status but the evasive answers that were given directly and indirectly (through William Hague) only led to further pressure for clarification which David Cameron later resisted and was still unanswered by the time of the election.

Now that the matter is settled, it would be interesting to know how successful Lord Ashcroft was in helping Conservative candidates in key marginal constituencies to win seats by providing special funding and human resources beyond what might otherwise have been available to them. I ask this question out of a natural curiosity about how far it is still possible to influence voting, especially at a general election when so many other factors are at work, by such targeted assistance. There is no suggestion that Lord Ashcroft was acting unlawfully; the point simply is that his campaign was unusual and perhaps unprecedented in scope and duration and it would by interesting to know how successful it proved to be in the end.