Michael Ashcroft Dirty politics Dirty times My fight with Wapping and New Labour New UpdatedEdition Lord Ashcroft, KCMG (60) is one of Britain’s foremost businessmen. Formerly Treasurer of the Conservative Party and Ambassador to the United Nations of the Commonwealth country of Belize, he is currently Deputy Chairman and a member of the Board of the Conservative Party. He is also Chairman of BB Holdings, Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and founding Chairman of the UK crime-fi ghting charity Crimestoppers. Michael Ashcroft Dirty politics Dirty times My fi ght with Wapping and New Labour PUBLISHING First published in Great Britain 2005 Th is edition 2006 Copyright © Michael Ashcroft 2006 Th e right of Michael Ashcroft to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act, 1988. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 904734 15 4 To Eric Ashcroft: my father, my inspiration Printed & Bound by Biddles Published by MAA Publishing Limited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of the publishers. Th is book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers’ prior consent in writing in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Th e reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Th erefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) Contents Preface xi 1 Trading in Doughnuts 1 2 Down to Business 22 3 Th e Donor 53 4 Rough Waters 71 5 Raising the Stakes 101 6 Fighting Back 137 7 Th e Need to Settle 171 8 Th e Money Man 221 9 Taking on New Labour 236 10 Th e Aftermath 279 Epilogue 307 Illustrations 320 Index 321 Preface THIS IS not a conventional autobiography. Th at daunting task will have to wait until the other side of my bus pass. Instead, this is an account of an eye-opening and turbulent period in my life during which I discovered the shadowy side of British politics and the unacceptable face of national newspaper journalism – not as a spectator, but as the prime target. As the survivor of hundreds of gruelling commercial deals and some of the most vigorously contested boardroom battles of my generation, I thought I had seen it all. Nothing I had witnessed in my business career, however, prepared me for the dirty tricks and the criminality that I encountered from the summer of 1999 onwards. By that point, a year into my tenure as Treasurer of the Conservative Party, most people outside the worlds of business and politics would not have heard of me. In the City, I had ac- quired a reputation – one that I was not altogether unhappy with – of being a successful, if tough and unconventional, business- man. At Westminster, I was a relative new boy charged by William Hague with turning around the fortunes of the Tory Party’s fragile fi nances. Unwittingly and reluctantly, I was propelled into the pub- lic spotlight as I became the target of concerted attacks aimed at removing me as Treasurer. As the momentum of the assaults on my position increased, I began to see that their underlying pur- pose was a more sinister, indeed undemocratic, one: to damage the fi nances and credibility of Her Majesty’s Opposition and to destabilise William Hague’s position as leader of the Conserva- tive Party. Th ose trying to undermine my position as Treasurer – and in the process harming my business interests on both sides of the Atlantic – were Th e Times, one of Britain’s oldest and most infl uential newspapers, and the Labour Government, led by Tony xii Dirty Politics, Dirty Times Preface xiii Blair and his cronies. Both were formidable opponents. Among essary legal battle against those who should have known better. my adversaries, I soon discovered, were some who thought little Th e Times and New Labour, in contrast, failed to destroy either of using deception, falsehoods and law-breaking in trying to harm of their targets: I emerged with a knighthood, a peerage and my my reputation, seemingly indiff erent to the impact on my ability good name intact, while the Conservative Party, aided by a fi rmer to work as an entrepreneur. Th e old saying about ‘not seeing a belt fi nancial base, regrouped, reunited and, I trust, will soon redis- without hitting below it’ was tailor-made for them. cover its winning ways. Once the campaigns against me had begun in earnest, I had Th is book tells the story of my battle against what had once to make a choice: to duck for cover, step down quietly, desert my been great and respected institutions. In the years since 1999, friends and allow the bully-boys to claim another scalp – or to those who acted illegally or overstepped the mark have been, or defend myself, my family, the values I uphold and the political are being, brought to justice. For instance, one overseas govern- party I have supported all my adult life. In short, I had to decide ment offi cial who broke the law in an attempt to discredit me has whether to surrender or to fi ght and, as has been my instinct over been jailed. Th e process of challenging my rivals has, at times, the years, I chose the latter, confi dent that I held the moral high been wearing and frustrating, but overall it has been fascinat- ground. ing and instructive. My search for openness and the truth has When I decided to stand up to Th e Times and New Labour, I encouraged others to turn on their unscrupulous paymasters. I am had no idea how long, tortuous and costly such a confrontation grateful for the co-operation that I have received from people on would be – or how low some of my enemies would stoop to try the fringes of the campaign. Th ey had been uneasy about some of to destroy me. Indeed, it is only recently that I have become fully the disgraceful behaviour that went on and therefore decided to aware of the extent of the machinations against me and the inde- share some of their inside knowledge of events with me. fensible tactics that were employed in the attempts to defeat me. I have now been a working peer for six years and it has taken In order to survive, I had to challenge Th e Times and New Labour me all that time to piece together the chronology of the various on many fronts: courtrooms on two continents, Parliament, the actions against me and to establish who was responsible for them. media, government offi ces and departments of state. I had to de- Th e gathering of such information has not come easily or cheaply. fend myself in the two countries that I love: Britain, where I was Fortunately, I have had the means that might not be available born and largely raised, and Belize, where I spent three years of to others and the successful results of my endeavours have made my childhood and which, three decades later, became my home the trials and tribulations along the way worthwhile. I believe, for a second time. too, that my discoveries have raised important questions about Eventually I achieved what I set out to do – I won my battles, the willingness of some of those people in government and in the and my enemies were embarrassed and punished. I forced Th e media to exploit and abuse – and thereby tarnish – the positions Times to publish a prominent front-page statement clearing my they hold. name. Th e illegal sources the newspaper had been happy to use in For years, my detractors have accused me of being ‘secre- order to blacken my name were exposed. I successfully sued the tive’, ‘mysterious’ and worse in my personal and business lives Government, forcing it to give me an unequivocal apology for its when I thought I had little to tell and no reason for telling it. In attempts to damage my reputation. Furthermore, I gained access order to recount my story now, I recognise that I need to reveal a to thousands of documents containing ‘confi dential’ information little of my life. Th ere is, however, an important caveat: although held on me, and I forced the Government to pay hundreds of I am willing to share intimate details of my life, my wife Susi and thousands of pounds in costs that I had spent fi ghting an unnec- my fi rst wife Wendy and our three children have always fi ercely xiv Dirty Politics, Dirty Times 1 Trading in Doughnuts guarded their privacy. I have to respect this and I will not betray the trust and the support that they have provided for so long, and for which I am extremely grateful. For that reason, my love for them and my appreciation for the happiness they have brought me will not fi nd expression in these pages. Just as I feel I need to reveal a little of my early life, it would be odd to treat my battles against Th e Times and New Labour in isolation.