Lord Ashcroft shifts ground over Tom Baldwin affair

Backtracks on "promise" to publish evidence.

By Dan Hodges Published 13 July 2011 12:06

As the phone-hacking scandal continues to steamroller all before it there is a new and interesting intervention today from Lord Ashcroft on his own Conservative Home website.

Last week Ashcroft made a series of allegations on Conservative Home against Tom Baldwin, Ed Miliband's strategy director, dating back to Baldwin's time as a journalist for the Times.

In his initial post Ashcroft claimed that Baldwin had "commissioned" a private investigator named Gavin Sangfield to gain access to his (Ashcroft's) private financial details, including his bank account, through a practice known as "blagging".

According to Ashcroft

Mr Singfield was charged by Mr Baldwin and his colleagues with accessing information from a bank account held at the Drummonds branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Charing Cross Road, London. The bank account from which Mr Baldwin sought information belonged to the Conservative Party, and his interest was confined to payments - perfectly legal ones - which I had made to that account.

Baldwin's commissioning of these activities was, according to Lord Ashcroft, "an infringement of the law".

However in today's post Lord Ashcroft appears to be attempting to subtly shift his ground. This morning, rather than charge Baldwin with "commissioning" Sangfield, Ashcroft instead alleges:

Mr Baldwin denied to his new boss that he had commissioned a private investigator to target me. But he has not denied that the Times commissioned Mr Singfield. Nor has he denied that he worked with the private investigator. Nor that he was responsible for handling the unlawfully acquired material.

What's also worth noting is that on Monday the Daily Telegraph reported that, "A source close to Lord Ashcroft, a leading Tory donor, said he planned to publish evidence to back his claims 'within days'." However, in today's post Ashcroft writes,

I am now hopeful that the Metropolitan Police, having admitted at the weekend that its probe into hacking allegations was inadequate, will now carry out a new inquiry into the activities of the "blaggers" who targeted me, [Gordon] Brown and others. For the moment, I am not publishing documents in my possession - obtained perfectly legitimately, by the way -- because I do not wish to jeopardise what I now hope will be a renewed attempt by the police to bring Mr Baldwin in front of a criminal court.

Although Tom Baldwin has not responded publicly to the allegations, Ed Miliband said on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, "People are trying to make a comparison between Andy Coulson, who resigned from the News of the World over phone hacking of the Royal family, and Tom Baldwin, who works for me. I think this is ridiculous."

He added, "Tom Baldwin was engaged in the Times newspaper, including an investigation of Michael Ashcroft, about whom there was massive public interest."

And asked about the specific allegations made by Lord Ashcroft, he said: "Tom Baldwin absolutely denies this. And I have to say that this is pretty desperate stuff because the Prime Minister must answer the real questions at the heart of this affair - about his error of judgment in hiring Andy Coulson and the mounting evidence there now is about the warnings that were given to him before he brought Andy Coulson into the heart of the Government machine."

This afternoon's debate on phone hacking and the BSkyB takeover should be one to watch.

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Tags: Tom Baldwin Lord Ashcroft

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16 comments

Wed, 2011-07-13 15:13 — Neil (not verified)

I read Ashcroft's earlier piece on ConHome and it came across as both desperate and more than a little bitter. In particular the allegations about Baldwin's drug taking were really classy.

Would Baldwin even have had the authority to commission a private detective on his own initiative a decade ago? Isn't that one of the points about this scandal, that it was never believable that Clive Goodman would have been able to commission Mulcaire to hack the Royals phones, that there had to be a degree of oversight? I note Ashcroft talks about a team from the Times in the latest piece. In the last one you'd be forgiven for thinking Baldwin was some intrepid lone reporter.

Anyway, this is never going to resonate with the public. The only purpose it serves is the thinnest wafer of 'whataboutery' to throw back at any difficult questions about Coulson. The current scandal only took off because of Milly Dowler; no one cared much when it was just politicians and celebs and I doubt the public will be moved by the complaints of a rich and powerful man.

That's one thing I've never understood about Ashcroft - that he himself doesn't seem to get why his funding of the Tory party would be of interest to the press. Surely he must get it but he always puts on this air of injured innocence. I suppose if anyone started questioning my hobbies I'd take it personally but then I'm into hill walking & scuba diving rather than collecting VCs and funding political parties.

Wed, 2011-07-13 15:27 — tuttifrutti (not verified)

If Ashcroft can't back up these allegations with sufficient evidence could that leave him open to a libel claim?

Wed, 2011-07-13 16:03 — crabstix (not verified)

So - Cameron employed an ex-NI journo... so does Ed the many legged... and Gordon and Sarah went to Rebekah's wedding... and everybody sits down to eat with them!

We can see the strings.

Cut them all, now.

Sat, 2011-07-16 18:31 — Lady J (not verified)

Great article Dan. It is refreshing to read an article where the writer is not giving the person at issue cover, by pointing the finger at others.

More of this straight talking please.

Wed, 2011-07-13 18:22 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

There is a debate about something which is not going to happen. Then we can all vote on it. And since it doesn't happen we can all say it was US wot done it. Sounds good to me.

Wed, 2011-07-13 19:11 — mediumal57

I don't think there will be a vote. It's a fait-accompli and I think the Speaker will just draw it to a close.

Wed, 2011-07-13 23:35 — Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley (not verified)

One can understand why some may be of the opinion that what's most important is how the services of private workers are obtained.

But in this context I'm wondering if it might be useful and pertinent to focus on this thing the media mindset commonly calls a scoop.

What is being scooped by private workers from where? Stuff that is supposed to be private from the private lives of other citizens?

Of course the effect of executive forces may well be to tell members of the public what their up to in their work..but in the same way any member of the public has ( probably more claim to ) the real prerogative to tell executive forces what we think, too. And perhaps more important - I daresay only ordinary members of the public are really at liberty to make mistakes when telling tales without fear or favour.

Put bluntly, anyone could ring up a newspaper and tell tales about somebody else. Of course the newspaper might not be breaking the law if it " investigates" - though what a fallacious affectation that would seem to be - given the fact the media is so poorly regulated. It could mean anything.

So much for the freedom of the press. That's why we need to tell our M.P's. first and foremost about things that are really bothering us sometimes eg when others might be interested but unable to help improve things.

Wed, 2011-07-13 23:38 — Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley (not verified)

tut. I mean to say;
"Of course the effect of executive forces may well be to tell members of the public what they're up to in their work"

Sun, 2011-07-17 15:22 — Richard T (not verified)

Encouraging to know that while everyone else is claiming that NI is rotten to the core, the cards are falling a pack at a time and the arrest warrants are being issued by the carload, the Staggers is 100% certain that at least one hack late of that parish is as clean as a whistle.

Thu, 2011-07-14 12:49 — Jingo Moon (not verified)

Oh Josephine, on the sauce again? Glug glug glug... get it down you girl.

Wed, 2011-07-13 12:19 — mcquade

And formerly in his book Dirty Politics, Cashcroft wrote:

""With the Tories in difficulty, The Times decided that this was an opportune moment to dress up some largely old information about my funding for the party and spin it to try to make life awkward for William Hague and me. At this point, the information had come into Tom Baldwin’s possession."

Big difference between commissioning the material and it being passed to you.