Those that make our Taxes should pay them

11.14.49am GMT Fri 21st Mar 2008

The House of Lords where a bill is being sponsored to have only peers resident in this country able to sit

Liberal Democrats have blasted the Conservatives for defending tax avoiders sitting in the House of Lords.

Tory peers have refused to support proposed new laws forcing all peers to pay taxes in Britain.

Jonathan Chatfield the Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson for South East Cambridgeshire who has already challenged Jim Paice MP over his party accepting big donations from those avoiding UK tax said:

"This is the true, same old Tory party - protecting those who are avoiding their UK taxes.

"Shouldn't those that make the taxes, pay them?"

A Bill requiring all members of the House of Lords to be fully resident in the UK or lose their seat in the Upper House has been sponsored in the Lords by Liberal Democrat Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay and supported by Labour MP Gordon Prentice in the Commons.

Lord Oakeshott said:

"This is an amazing U-turn... The only explanation I can give is that when they looked at the small print they realised that Lord Ashcroft could be caught.

"I have joined forces with Labour MP Gordon Prentice to get a Bill through Parliament this session, to make peers who dodge British taxes pay up or pack up."

The House of Lords (Members' Taxation Status) Bill, makes clear that peers are only deemed fully resident in Britain if they are domiciled in no other country for tax purposes.

According to the Daily Telegraph and others Lord Ashcroft the big Conservative party donor has a business empire based in Belize, Central America.