BBC pulls Ashcroft exposé
By politics.co.uk staff
An edition of the BBC’s Panorama programme on Lord Ashcroft’s tax affairs was pulled last night by the corporation, a matter of hours before the scheduled broadcast.
The decision came after the BBC received a response from the peer on Monday afternoon that inclined them to cancel the broadcast, which was set to delve into the controversy over the outgoing Conservative deputy chairman’s tax status.
A spokesman for the BBC said: “We put a number of questions to Lord Ashcroft two weeks ago, including one relating to a share interest transfer.
“We asked for a response by Friday 24th September. In a response received this afternoon we have been given information that sheds new light on that issue and we will therefore review the programme.”
The suggestion emerged yesterday that Lord Ashcroft avoided paying inheritance tax on his share in his main UK business interest the Impellam group by transferring it to trust for his children.
This reportedly took place one day before new rules came into effect, which force members of the House of Lords to pay full UK tax.
It is unknown whether the BBC received information relating to this specific case, though the fact the statement mentions “a share interest transfer” would suggest it fed into the decision to pull the programme hours before broadcast.
The BBC replaced the broadcast with another edition of Panorama.
