We must now know whether Ashcroft's donations were legal

Yesterday's disclosure that Lord Ashcroft: the Conservative Party's biggest donor - possibly the biggest donor to a political party of all time - isn't a domiciled British taxpayer and doesn't pay the same taxes as you and me, isn't exactly revelatory. After all, the Conservatives wouldn't have gone through four different leaders all refusing to reveal his tax status if it had been above board, would they?

But what this confession does do is pile pressure on the Electoral Commission to complete its investigation into Ashcroft's company: Bearwood Corporate Services, and publish its findings before the general election is called.

I explained the background in a post in January here - simply put, if Bearwood is nothing more than a front for Ashcroft and not a genuine company trading in the UK the donations it has channelled direct from his home in the Caribbean to Tory Party coffers will be illegal contributions. That's over £3 million nationally and over £19,000 that have gone to Putney Conservatives.

As I said at the start, no one who believed Lord Ashcroft's status was beyond reproach would go to the lengths the Conservatives have to avoid acknowledging it. The Electoral Commission must now rule on this, and if they find Justine Greening's Putney party took £19,000 from Ashcroft illegally, that money must be paid back to taxpayers pronto.