The Right Honourable The Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC |
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Michael Ashcroft
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Born |
Michael Anthony Ashcroft 4 March 1946 Chichester, West Sussex, England |
Residence | London, Maidenhead, Belize |
Citizenship |
British Belizean |
Education |
Norwich School Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe |
Alma mater | Anglia Ruskin University |
Occupation | Businessman, philanthropist, politician |
Known for | Hawley Goodall ADT British Car Auctions Flooved Piggate Tax avoidance |
Net worth | £865 million (US$1.48 billion, April 2015) |
Political party | Conservative Party |
Spouse(s) | Susan Anstey (m. 1986) |
Michael Anthony P. Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, KCMG, PC (born 4 March 1946) is a businessman and politician. He is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Ashcroft founded Michael A. Ashcroft Associates in 1972 and is the 74th richest person in the UK, as ranked by the Sunday Times Rich List 2015, with an estimated fortune of £1.32 billion.
He sat on the Conservative benches of the House of Lords until 2015, having been ennobled as a life peer in 2000. His peerage was controversial due to his status as tax exile. The Cabinet Office stated that he would take up permanent residence in the UK for tax purposes, however it was revealed a decade later that he had not done so.
Ashcroft holds dual British and Belizean nationality, and is a belonger of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Born in Chichester, West Sussex, as his father Eric was a British colonial civil servant, Ashcroft spent some of his early years in British Honduras (now Belize) and Malawi.
He was educated at Norwich School, Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and Mid-Essex Technical College (now Anglia Ruskin University), where he obtained a Higher National Diploma in Business studies.