David Cameron was asked during PMQs today whether or not he would continue hosting dinners at Downing Street with a man named Ian Taylor. He was also urged to return the money Mr Taylor has donated to the Conservative Party.
David Cameron was asked during PMQs today whether or not he would continue hosting dinners at Downing Street with a man named Ian Taylor. He was also asked whether he would be giving back money the same Mr Taylor had donated to the Tory Party.
Mr Cameron gave a curt response, accusing the MP who asked the question – Angus Robertson of the SNP – of playing a “cheap political card”.
So just who is Ian Taylor?
Well first off he is the president and chief executive of the world’s largest oil trader, Vitol, and he has been involved in the oil business for more than 30 years. Since June 2006 he has donated £555,100 to the Tory party. He also dined with David Cameron at Downing Street on 2 November 2011.
In 2001, The Observer revealed that Vitol paid £1 million to Serbian war criminal Željko Ražnatović (better known as Arkan) to arrange an oil deal with the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. For its part Vitol said no illegal conduct was involved in this transaction. According to the the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Arkan was responsible for at least 24 crimes against humanity, including the murder of civilians, rape and ethnic cleansing.
According to Herald Scotland, Vitol, the company which Ian Taylor head, has also in the past used Employee Benefit Trusts to avoid tax on the incomes of its UK staff and has been in discussion with HMRC about a deal to pay this off.
Is it really acceptable for Mr Cameron to dismiss concerns about donations from someone whose company had a relationship with one of Serbia’s most notorious war criminals in so blase a manner?
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64 Responses to “David Cameron’s dodgy money”
OldLb
And then we have unions paying Labour, and at the same time demanding that their candiates get on on the Gravy train in Europe.
Cash for seats.
Cash to become a peer
….
TristanPriceWilliams
Not a cheap political card really The man did deals with Arkan; he tax dodged… He’s not someone I’d want associated with my party, but then I’m not a Tory.
vanzimmer
All parties take dirty money. One has only to look at the SNP and their use of “Dirty Money” – Thanks to Maggie Thatcher, Brian Souter became a multi-millionaire from her deregulation of the bus companies. The SNP came to power promising to re-regulate buses, but were given £1million from Brian’s ‘Thatcher Millions’. Not only did the SNP scrub the policy, they gave this
homophobic bigot, a knighthood. This established that SNP policy can be reversed for one million pounds, and you get a knighthood ‘thrown in’ – Dirty Money indeed – I am always amazed by the
convenient memories of all political bodies!
Henry Hooper
In case no-ones told you…you and your colleagues are doing a grand job
Iain S
I’m not sure how you can equate a homophobe with someone who has committed war atrocities. It’s almost as if your trying to downplay ethnic cleansing in the hope of deflecting attention from dodgy Unionist donations.
Full marks on getting a mention of Thatcher in though. Let’s all get angry at Thatcher and not bother asking the Tories and their Labour chums in Better Together why it’s acceptable to take money linked to war crimes.