Michael Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft

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Lord Ashcroft

Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft , KCMG (born March 4, 1946 in Chichester , West Sussex ) is a British businessman and was politically active for the Conservative Party .

Career

Ashcroft graduated from Mid-Essex Technical College with a degree in economics. From 1967 to 1969 he was a management trainee at Carreras Tobacco . He then worked for the service company Pritchard Group Services. Ashcroft started his own company in 1972 and in 1974 took over the unprofitable cleaning company Uni-Kleen for a symbolic price of £ 1, refurbished it and sold it for £ 1.3 million.

In 1977 he acquired the distressed camping equipment manufacturer Hawley Goodall; Through a number of other acquisitions, Ashcroft transformed the company into a service group whose portfolio included janitorial services, auto auctions and security services. In 1981 Hawley expanded into the United States and sales rose to $ 27 million.

In 1986, after the takeover of his former employer Pritchard Services , sales were more than $ 1.3 billion. In 1987 Hawley took over Indianapolis-based Crime Control Inc. for $ 50 million and focused on security services under the new name ADT Inc.; other businesses went to Integrated Service Solutions . In 1997, ADT slipped under the shell of the US conglomerate Tyco International for $ 6.7 billion .

Bust of Lord Ashcroft

Ashcroft, who is also a citizen of Belize , was raised to life peer as Baron Ashcroft , of Chichester in the county of West Sussex, on October 20, 2000 and became a member of the House of Lords . In the same year he was also made Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George .

From 1998 to 2001 he was senior party treasurer of the Tories . He was vice chairman of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2010. Since 2007 he has been treasurer of the International Democratic Union .

Michael Ashcroft was not officially resident in the UK until 2010, as this enabled him to benefit from the tax haven rules of Belize for his businesses . His status led to the fact that in 2010 Parliament passed a law obliging members of both houses of parliament to register a residence in Great Britain for tax reasons. Ashcroft followed this law in 2010, although in 2000 he had given the then chairman of the Conservative Party William Hague his promise to register a residence in the United Kingdom by the end of the year. On March 31, 2015, Lord Ashcroft announced that he would give up his seat in the House of Lords with immediate effect and that he would no longer be officially resident in the UK. According to a law passed in 2014, he can continue to use his title with this step. He wanted, as he explained, to concentrate more on his work as an opinion researcher and publicist and would now be able to take advantage of the tax regulations for those not permanently residing in Great Britain.

On November 7, 2017, Ashcroft was asked in front of the camera by a BBC reporter about a possible involvement in the Paradise Papers . Ashcroft turned away wordlessly and walked away in silence. However, the reporter persisted and followed him. For almost two minutes Ashcroft could be seen walking quickly through an exhibition hall, wordless and aimless, while the reporter kept asking him about the Paradise Papers without receiving an answer. Finally Ashcroft took refuge in a toilet.

In his private life, Ashcroft is a collector of Victoria Crosses and George Crosses . He owns the largest private collection in the world, which is on loan from the Ashcroft Gallery, named after him, in the Imperial War Museum in London .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Ashcroft: Dirty Politics Dirty Times . Biteback, 2009, ISBN 1-84954-009-8 ( lordashcroft.com [PDF]).
  2. ↑ Ashcroft: The Tories' troublesome tycoon. BBC News. March 31, 2000.
  3. ^ Andrew Clark and Robert Shrimsley: The City spotlight falls once again on 'Daddy Warbucks' . In: The Daily Telegraph , July 14, 1999. Archived from the original on March 29, 2002. Retrieved April 12, 2008. 
  4. ↑ Lord Ashcroft: why it's time I moved on In: The Daily Telegraph . September 18, 2010, accessed April 1, 2015.
  5. ^ Michael Fallon named Conservative Party deputy chairman. In: The Daily Telegraph. September 22, 2010, accessed April 1, 2015.
  6. ^ Lord Ashcroft gives up non-dom status, Tories confirm. In: The Guardian . July 7, 2010, accessed April 1, 2015.
  7. ^ Lord Ashcroft resigns from House of Lords to focus on polling and publishing. In: The Guardian. March 31, 2015, accessed April 1, 2015.
  8. ↑ Paradise Papers: Lord Ashcroft hides from trust question. BBC News, November 5, 2017, accessed November 7, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Ashcroft, Michael, Baron Ashcroft
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ashcroft, Michael Anthony, Baron Ashcroft
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British businessman and politician (Conservative Party)
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Chichester , West Sussex