Of the two camps, David Cameron, the Prime Minister and the leader of the
Conservatives since 2005, is most definitely “home team”. It was Lord
Ashcroft’s wife, Susi, who, after a day campaigning with the youthful MP for
Witney many years ago, first persuaded her billionaire businessman husband
that Mr Cameron had the requirements to be a future party leader.
Yet now Lord Ashcroft has privately told the Prime Minister that he is
stepping down as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party on September 27 –
a few days before the party conference. His decision will end recent
speculation that he intended to continue to play a prominent role in the
party’s hierarchy.
“Job done,” he said, in a rare interview at his personal headquarters in the
heart of Westminster. It was a reference to his work prior to the general
election in which he masterminded the party’s polling and the marginal seats
campaign.
In fact, though, only half the “job” was done. The Conservatives won most
seats but without an overall majority, meaning they had to forge an alliance
with the Liberal Democrats to ensure that Mr Cameron, not Gordon Brown, was
asked by the Queen to form a government. Although Lord Ashcroft’s office is
a stone’s throw from Lib Dem HQ, he and Nick Clegg’s party are not natural
allies.
So was the election result a triumph or a failure? “There’s no point
pretending I wasn’t disappointed. We all were. Having worked for so long
with such high hopes, it’s obviously frustrating not to have won outright,”
he said.
Lord Ashcroft, who tomorrow publishes a tough critique of his party’s election
strategy, said: “Something like 82 per cent of voters said before the
election that it was 'time for change’, but only 36 per cent ended up voting
Conservative. Obviously, there was a gap between the change they wanted and
the change they thought we represented. That is largely because we had not
completely mended the Conservative brand.
“We spent too much time attacking Gordon Brown and Labour, rather than setting
out our own plans. People had decided they wanted change – the thing they
were not sure about was the alternative we were offering, so going on and on
about Labour missed the point. By the time of the TV debates, people were
still not sure we had really changed or what it was we wanted to do, which
gave Nick Clegg his chance.”
Despite widespread speculation that Lord Ashcroft and Mr Cameron have had a
fallout, the Tory peer insists that is not the case. “We have a very good,
constructive relationship,” he said. “I think that from the moment he became
leader – well before that, actually – he grasped what the problem was with
the Conservative Party. He realised that we had lost touch with large
numbers of people who ought to have been voting for us; that people thought
we were untrustworthy and old-fashioned. He has gone a long way to putting
that right. And, although we didn’t get a majority at the election, we
gained more seats than we’ve managed to do for 80 years.”
Dressed in a navy suit and open-neck pale blue shirt, Lord Ashcroft said he
will take a step back from the hurly-burly of day-to-day politics. “I took a
very active role in opposition, but now I am going to concentrate on other
things,” he said.
Over the past two decades, Lord Ashcroft has donated an estimated £15 million
to the party that he has supported since he was an impoverished student. He
is a self-made man who made his early millions through cleaning, security
and service companies. He says he will continue to be a party donor but will
give less than when he “led from the front” as party treasurer from 1998 to
2001 under Mr Hague’s leadership, and turned around the party’s dire
financial position.
“The party is actually in pretty good shape financially, which is a great
credit to Michael Spencer [the outgoing treasurer] and his team. They raised
even more money than we were allowed to spend in the election campaign, so
I’m not sure they need me for now,” he said.
Lord Ashcroft, who is twice married and has three grown-up children by his
first wife, is a political bruiser. His style – controversial, at times
aggressive, or even ruthless – has brought his party mixed publicity, and
his critics have sneered at the fact that he was a Belize-based tax exile
for years. As well as claims from years ago that he “owned” the party, there
was unwelcome publicity this March when he was forced to admit in the run-up
to the May election that he had enjoyed the status of a “non-dom” – and had
not been paying income tax on his worldwide earnings. Critics tried to
portray him as dishonourable, and claimed he had reneged on an earlier
pledge.
Lord Ashcroft is fiercely dismissive of any suggestion that he cost the party
crucial votes – or that he lacks integrity. “These things never help, of
course, but I don’t think it was a big factor in the scheme of things. It’s
the bigger picture that determines how people vote, not side issues like
that, however much the Left-wing media, like the BBC, go on about them.”
Seated in the vast company boardroom where he has clinched so many business
deals, Lord Ashcroft appears to choose his words carefully when asked if he
felt the Tory leadership backed him sufficiently over the row. “I think they
could have mounted a more spirited defence of the situation. It did prove to
me that the Labour Party attack team was much more effective than the
Conservative Party defence team. The negotiations [in 2000] with the
[Labour] government for me to join the House of Lords did not include any
commitment on my part to be taxed on my worldwide income.”
Loyalty is high on his list of priorities. Mr Hague stood firmly by him when
the peer was at the centre of controversy in the build-up to the 2001
election and Lord Ashcroft is now equally protective of his friend, who has
been at the centre of intense speculation over the nature of his friendship
with Christopher Myers, his former special adviser. “I wouldn’t want such a
statesman as William Hague, one of the best politicians of this generation,
to be disenchanted with politics because of a storm in a teacup,” he said.
He does not think Mr Hague aspires to lead the party again, adding: “Nor do
I think he will make a future career out of politics – and it will be a
poorer place without him.”
And what are his views on the Coalition? “So far, so good. It’s early days but
so far I think things are holding together pretty well. They have been quite
bold about setting out the need for cuts, which is the right thing to do.
It’s good to see that they have hit the ground running.”
But is he uneasy over some of its policies? “Like any entrepreneur – in fact,
like any aspirational voter – I instinctively dislike the very high rates of
tax that Labour left us with. We need the economy to grow, so any
disincentive to invest and create jobs is clearly counterproductive. I know
the Chancellor appreciates that. Obviously, he has very little room for
manoeuvre, given the state of the public finances, but as things improve I hope
that is something he will be able to deal with.” Yet Lord Ashcroft believes
that the Tories can and will get a majority at the next election – helped by
the marginal seats team that he set up and still hugely respects.
Since the election, the Tory peer has continued to be a powerful figure in the
party. Senior Conservatives have said he was instrumental in the resignation
last month of David Rowland, the property tycoon, as treasurer of the party
– weeks before he was due to take up the post. Lord Ashcroft declined to
confirm or deny whether he had played a role in Mr Rowland’s exit, but he
did confirm that he had not been consulted over the appointment.
Although Lord Ashcroft is 65 next year, he has no intention of walking away
from the multi-million-pound business deals that still excite him. Indeed,
his reduced political commitments mean he has more time to launch business
ventures, particularly media ones. A year ago, he bought controlling stakes
in two influential websites, ConservativeHome and PoliticsHome.
Lord Ashcroft, who along with all members of the House of Lords now pays
income tax in the UK on his worldwide earnings, says these interests will
expand further. “I believe the future of the media is the internet, and
clearly I am a political animal. But I don’t believe it is in my commercial
interests to explain to my competitors what my future plans are.”
He adds mischievously: “I may even ask Jeremy Hunt [the Culture Secretary] if
I could help him with the issues facing the BBC.” Senior BBC executives,
along with the Left-wing newspaper editors who, he believes, have spent
years trying to smear him, are not on Lord Ashcroft’s Christmas card list.
By stepping away from day-to-day politics, he will also have more time for his
multi-million-pound charity work. In less than two months’ time, he will
unveil the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum. It is being
built with a £5 million donation from him and will house his pride and joy:
a 160-plus collection of Victoria Cross medals, built up since 1986 and now
worth an estimated £30 million. Lord Ashcroft has had a lifelong interest in
bravery: his latest book, George Cross Heroes, is published next month to
accompany a four-part television series of the same name.
He has stated that, when he dies, 80 per cent of his estate will go to a
charity foundation. One thing is certain: on his birthday next March he will
not be collecting his bus pass and retiring to tend his rose garden.
“I get more ambitious every decade, and I am more ambitious today than ever
before,” he said. “I still love the game – and the thrill of the chase.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8011120/Lord-Ashcroft-interview-why-I-am-stepping-down-from-party-I-helped-get-elected.html