Peter Hoskin

Ashcroft in the clear?<br />

The Beeb were reporting it an hour or so ago, but now it’s been confirmed: the Electoral Commission has cleared the Tories and Lord Ashcroft of any wrongdoing over £5.1 million worth of donations from his company, Bearwood
Corporate Services Limited. 

Sure, there are still questions surrounding this whole affair – most of them to do with the Tories’ naivety in their handling of it.  But you suspect that this announcement will draw some of the political poison out of proceedings. 

Not that that will stop Harriet Harman or her colleagues in the Labour party…

UPDATE: Channel 4’s Cathy Newman is reporting that David Cameron only knew about Ashcroft’s non-dom status “within the last month”.  As I say above, there are clear signs of, at best, Tory naivety in this whole affair.

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