Michael Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft Totally Explained

Everything about Michael Ashcroft Baron Ashcroft totally explained

Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, KCMG (born 4 March 1946) is a British businessman and politician. He was made a life peer in 2000, and is Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. He also holds Belizean nationality and is a Belonger of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Through various companies he's an extremely influential Tory donor, thought to be by far the biggest donor to the Conservatives.

Biography

Michael Ashcroft spent some of his early years in Belize and Malawi in connection with his father having been a colonial civil servant with placements abroad. He was educated at Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe and Mid-Essex Technical College (now Anglia Ruskin University), Chelmsford.
   He has been Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University since November 2001, and has donated £5 million for the university's business school at Chelmsford, now called Ashcroft International Business School.
   He is Chairman of UK charity Crimestoppers.
   He ranked 89th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2007, with an estimated personal wealth of £800m.

Business career

He began work as a management trainee at Rothmans in 1967. He left Rothmans in 1972 and bought a cleaning company with a £15,000 loan. He sold the cleaning company for £1.3 million in 1977.
   He is now chairman of BB Holdings Limited (listed on the Alternative Investment Market) which has interests in facilities services, finance and telecommunications. It is the parent company of The Belize Bank and has a 26% share in Belize Telemedia Limited.
   Michael Ashcroft has other business connections with Belize, and was appointed as the Belize government's Permanent Representative to the United Nations up to April 2000.
   He also has significant interests in the following companies quoted on the Alternative Investment Market: Mavinwood, Carlisle, OneSource, Corporate Services Group, Watford, London Town, Digital Marketing, Global Health. Ashcroft attempted a takeover of Corporate Services Group in 1999. In June 2006, he increased his stake in Corporate Services Group to 28.5%, prompting speculation that he might make an offer for the remaining shares in the company. As of March 2006 he became the major shareholder in English professional football club Watford, owning up to 42% of the club's shares.
   In September 2006, he accepted a bid for British Car Auctions (BCA) worth £450m, netting him a personal gain of £200m.

British politics

In the UK, he was a major donor to and Treasurer of the Conservative Party from 1998 to 2001, under William Hague. His tenure was marked by a number of controversies: he was seen to pay little UK income tax due to his domicile in Belize; and he was at the centre of a debate about openness and accountability of political funding.
   Unsubstantiated speculation about his business affairs was concluded when he pursued a libel action against The Times. This was settled on 9 December, 1999, when The Times issued a statement that "[...] Litigation between the parties has been settled to mutual satisfaction, with each side bearing its own costs."
   In 2004 he clashed with Conservative leader Michael Howard when he offered a £2m donation on the condition that it should go to his specified candidates, rather than into general Conservative Central Office funds.
   In December 2005, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.
   On 12th October 2007 he was accused by Labour MP's for being allowed to heavily fund the local Conservative organisations in marginal seats of his choosing. The Electoral Commission is investigating and changes to the rules are predicted.
   During the "Cash for Peerages" controversy, on 31 March 2006 he was named by the Conservative Party as having loaned it £3.6m.

Australian politics

Lord Ashcroft has become a significant figure in Australian politics having been identified as the single largest individual donor to any Australian political party during the Financial Year 2004/2005. The Australian Electoral Commission reported in February 2006 that Ashcroft (who gave his address as "House of Lords, Westminster, London") had donated $1,000,000 to the Liberal Party in September 2004 just before the 2004 Federal election. It was the biggest single disclosed private donation in Australian political history.

U.S. DEA leak scandal

In the U.S., an intelligence research specialist for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Jonathan Randel, leaked Ashcroft's name as being in the DEA's files, although it later emerged that Ashcroft was one of 5 million people they routinely had files on. Randel claims to have believed the DEA was ignoring Ashcroft in its investigation of money laundering, so Ashcroft sued. A U.S. attorney investigated Randel for his leak. On January 9, 2003, Randel was sentenced to a year in a federal prison, followed by three years probation.

Honours

In March 2000, Ashcroft was appointed as a life peer with the title Baron Ashcroft, of Chichester in the County of West Sussex. His appointment to the House of Lords was controversial at the time, particularly because of his business and political interests in Belize. He was nominated by Conservative party leader William Hague on the condition that he became a UK resident. Ashcroft then announced that he intended to take the title "Baron Ashcroft of Belize", a suggestion that infuriated his political opponents. He later claimed this had been a joke, and his title was created as simply Baron Ashcroft.
In June 2000 he was appointed KCMG for public service to the community and country of Belize.

Victoria Crosses

Ashcroft collects Victoria Crosses and is reputed to have over 151 of them. His collection is by far the largest in the world and spans the three services - Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF). The collection also spans 128 years from acts of bravery at the start of the Crimean War in 1854 to an act of courage during the Falklands War in 1982. He wrote Victoria Cross Heroes, published in November 2006 (updated paperback version released in May 2007), to mark the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross.
Following the theft of a number of Victoria Crosses awarded to New Zealand servicemen from the Army Museum at Waiouru in late 2007, Lord Ashcroft pledged NZ$200,000 for their return. Those stolen included the very rare VC & Bar of Charles Upham. The medals were recovered three months later and at a presentation in Wellington on 15 April 2008 he pledged a further NZ$200,000 for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for the thefts.

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