What do you do when you’re a non-dom who’s been found out for continuing to avoid tax despite promising Parliament to pay your full share – when you were a peer, working for the taxpayer?
You hide in the loo, of course.
Watch to the end, comedy gold. Lord Ashcroft, asked about tax dodging, walking around in circles for two minutes until he finds a toilet a hide in. Delightful metaphor. #paradisepapers pic.twitter.com/0aEMj3KXFx
— Ben Phillips (@benphillips76) November 6, 2017
The Tory donor and former deputy chairman gave the world an idea of just how transparent he believes his tax affairs should be when he escaped persistent questions from a BBC Panorama journalist by marching into a toilet.
He resolutely refused to comment on the revelation, now confirmed in the published Paradise Papers, that he was domiciled in Belize for tax purposes (when, as a peer, he promised he’d give up his non-dom status to pay tax) during this door-stepping at Tory party conference. Afterwards, he tweeted:
“Dear dear dear… No hiding..went in …had a pee..and walked out… ”
A master of the dodge.