“..Business secretary says Ashcroft has Cameron ‘by the balls’ and that affair reveals ‘fundamental weakness’..
David Cameron’s failure to confront his billionaire deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft over his tax status exposes the “fundamental weakness” of the Conservative leader and undermines his claim to be a moderniser, Lord Mandelson said tonight.
In a highly personal attack, the business secretary said in an interview with the Guardian that Ashcroft had Cameron “by the balls” ..
.. the affair showed Cameron was “too weak to pick a fight with his own party” and the Tories were “fundamentally unchanged”.
Mandelson raised the stakes in the row that has convulsed the Tories since Ashcroft, the party’s chief backer, made the surprise announcement last Monday that he has been a non-dom – not paying tax on his foreign earnings – since he became a member of the House of Lords 10 years ago.
Lord Tebbit, the former party chairman, also criticised Ashcroft’s handling of the affair today, the most senior Tory to do so publicly.
While there is little evidence so far that the affair is damaging the party in the polls ..
.. the Conservative leadership is desperate for the controversy to abate .. anxious it is not being heard on other policies.
Eric Pickles, the Tory chairman, said today that attempts by Labour to prolong the controversy amounted to “rank hypocrisy and political opportunism”.
Pickles accused Labour of “false indignation over non-doms” because Labour has also taken money from non-dom donors.
But Mandelson said what was significant was not Ashcroft’s tax status, but what Cameron had done about it ..
.. and he used the affair to question Cameron’s modernising credentials..”
(here is the money-quote:..)
“Mr Cameron would rather be seen as complicit in Ashcroft’s deception than take him on …
..[Ashcroft] has David Cameron by the balls.
Stand up to him, and the Tories lose his money.
Bow down in front of him, and Ashcroft continues to call the shots.”
(now..is it inopportune of me to ask .. yet again:..just what it was that business of ashcroft making special flights down here..
..for ‘special-briefings’ with ‘our’ tory-leader..john key..?..
w.t.f. was that all about..?..pray tell..!..
..was ashcroft ‘bowing down’ to key..?..or vice-versa..?..)
go to source/story>>Peter Mandelson raises stakes in Lord Ashcroft row | Politics | The Guardian
