Bill could flush out tax exile party donors
I didn't have time to mention last night the government's significant defeat in the Lords on an amendment to the Elections Bill tabled by the Labour peer Dale Campbell-Savours, which would ban donations to political parties from tax exiles.
This was opposed by another of those strange alliances between the Labour and Conservative front benches, but Mr Campbell-Savours managed to drum up enough support from Labour rebels, Liberal Democrats and cross-benchers to get his amendment through quite comfortably.
This raises the prospect of a big Labour revolt and government defeat when the bill returns to the Commons.
A similar amendment was tabled by the backbench Labour MP Gordon Prentice when the bill was previously in the Commons.
It got huge backing from Labour MPs, but the government's timetable motion meant it was never debated or voted upon.
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If the amendment remains part of the legislation it might finally flush out whether the Conservative Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft pays British tax these days, a question which both he and his colleagues steadfastly refuse to answer.
What I don't fully understand is why the government won't accept the amendment. I can only assume Labour also hopes for some big contributions from tax exiles.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 17th Jun 2009, york1900 wrote:It just shows how croupt parliament uk is they do not want to come clean as they would lose so much money it shows that they all are drity and they do not want to take there hands out of the cookie jar
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