On Friday Labour peer Lord Clarke was informed by the Crown Prosecution Service that he will not face charges over allegations that he missuses the Lords expenses system to claim overnight allowances he was not entitled to.

But if the former chairman of the Labour Party thought he was out of the woods he may have to think again. continue reading

Labour backbencher Stephen Pound, who has targeted Lord Ashcroft on numerous occasions, has stepped up his attack on the Conservatives Deputy Chairman.

The MP for Ealing North has written to the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee to ask if if they will investigate Lord Ashcroft, who according to Pound “apparently failed” to note on the register of Lords’ interests that he is the “sole ultimate beneficial owner and sole director” of a company called Mayfair Limited.

In his letter to John Lyon he writes “I am concerned that Lord Ashcroft’s seeming failure to disclose all of his relevant business interests means he is not fully meeting his responsibilities under the Lords’ code of conduct.”

He said the public had the right to “full knowledge of the facts” because Mayfair Limited is incorporated in Belize, and the peer has asked questions in the Lords which concern the central American country.

“I would therefore ask you to investigate why Lord Ashcroft has failed to declare his ownership in Mayfair Limited,” he wrote.

David Cameron has told Sky News that all MPs and peers would have to be prove that they are full UK taxpayers should the Conservatives win the General Election.

Speaking to Adam Boulton he said the Conservative party would legislate so that any Member or Lord would be forced to stand down if they were found to be not paying tax in the UK.

“I can tell you today that I want to put the whole situation beyond doubt, not just for the Conservative party but for all members of Parliament, Lords and Commons.

“I think it is time to pass a law that says: if you want to be in the Houses of Parliament, if you want to be a legislator, then you need to be, or be treated as, a full UK taxpayer.”

“There are members in the Lords, from a range of different parties, who’s tax status is unclear, this would just put it beyond doubt. This would say, for the future, if you want to sit in the House of Lords or sit in the House of Commons you have to be a full UK taxpayer or treated as a full UK taxpayer, very simple, very straightforward, if you want to make the law of the land you need to be a full UUK taxpayer, I think it need to be done now to but the issue beyond doubt,” he added.

Tax status has been a hot issue for the party for some time with Labour making numerous attacks on the party over whether or not Lord Ashcroft, the parties Deputy Chairman, pays tax in the UK or not. The issue was also rekindled after Zac Goldsmith was selected as a prospective candidate.

The Conservative leader said that he would aim to bring in new laws as soon as possible, saying: “We would pass that law if we get elected. We would pass it straight away, we would bring it into force as rapidly as we could. I think that would put the situation beyond doubt.”

Mr Cameron said donations by Lord Ashcroft were “within the law”.

He said: “If people give money individually, they have to be resident in the UK and on the electoral register and that’s a rule that we apply and if it’s a UK company giving you the money it has to be a proper operating company.

“So we always make those checks, all the donations that have been made by Lord Ashcroft or by any British companies associated with him.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’ve checked and they are within the law.

“The Labour party and the Liberal Democrats should do exactly the same thing.”

The Guardian is reporting that the BNP’s membership list has once again been leaked to a website, who are due to publish it sometime tomorrow.

You would have thought that after having its membership list leaked twice before, the BNP would have tightened up its data handling procedures, especially after the fiasco that followed the leak in November 2008.

worryingly, according to the Guardian, the list includes the name of a sitting member of the House of Lords.

The Guardian – who first broke the news – reports that the following data is also included in the list:

As before the list contains the names, addresses, postcodes and telephone numbers of people who have signed up to the far-right group along with their level of membership – Standard, Family, Family Plus, Gold, OAP, and Unwaged.

The list also reveals that as of April this year the party had 11,560 members and that the party appears to have benefited from a surge in female recruits with one in eight of the party’s members being women.

No doubt this list has been leaked by some disgruntled far-far-right nutjobs in the party, believing the BNP to have gone soft under Griffin. Either way, this isn’t the best timing for the party – what with BBC Question Time upcoming on Thursday.