Four non-dom peers quit Lords
Tuesday, 6 July 2010 5:41 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Four peers prefer their non-dom status to their status as members of the House of Lords.
Raj Bagri, a multimillionaire Conservative peer, followed the party's former chairman Alistair McAlpine and fellow Tory Irvine Laidlaw to resign from the Lords so they could retain their non-domicile status for tax purposes.
Under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act passed earlier this year with cross-party support parliamentarians are not permitted to be non-doms, who avoid having to pay income tax on their overseas earnings.
Peers have until midnight this evening to comply by either abandoning their non-dom status or leaving the Lords.
Crossbencher Lydia Dunn announced her intention to leave the Lords last week. She and the other three peers will be permitted to keep their title but will be barred from attending debates or voting in parliament.
Major Tory donor Michael Ashcroft was the subject of heavy scrutiny earlier this year when he finally admitted his tax status as a non-dom.
He said he would give up his non-dom status but has until midnight to change his mind.
"We'll have to wait and see," a spokesperson told the Guardian newspaper.
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