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?
64 Responses to “David Cameron’s dodgy money”
Alec
When did you last beat your wife whilst masturbating in public?
~alec
Richas
My “defence” of Ian Taylor is that to date your accusations – first war criminal, then person who deals with war criminals are essentially false. The man accused is called Bob Finch.
As for rather wasting Tory money on Salmond’s referendum, yeah, I’d rather the left’s campaign funds went to beating the coalition.
It is nice of you to confirm the real agenda of the Yes campaign, it is trying to turn it into a referendum on the coalition that most Scots oppose rather than devolution within the union that most Scots support. Might work I suppose, its a bit sad but you go for it.
Iain S
I think if you actually read what Richas said you’ll find that my encapsulation of it is correct. He admits to using Tory money to save Labour money.
When was the last time you accused someone you had a political disagreement with of supporting ‘gay-baiting’?
Iain S
I think if you actually read what Richas said you’ll find that my encapsulation of it is correct. He admits to using Tory money to save Labour money.
When was the last time you accused someone you had a political disagreement with of supporting ‘gay-baiting’?
Alec
Now you’re using rant to mean “someone who’s not speaking to me with the deference I think I deserve”! Buffoon.
You did not say BT was funded by a Tory. You said it was Tory funded. This grammatical ordering was either to allow sympathetic readers to construe that BT was Tory-aligned whilst back pedaling if anyone called you up on it or it was… nah, that’s what it was.
If BT is “Tory backed” then the SNP is “mouthy homophobe backed”. And, no matter how much you say you’re not SNP, you simply have not shown as much animated opposition to it as you have to other partiescampaigns which you are not a member of so – by your argument – have no pressing reason to object to.
And then we have the childish syllogism that Tory = original sin. Personally, I never would vote for them, but as someone who long ago advanced from petty 1st year undergrad political nonsense, I prefer to base things on actual arguments and not “ooo, you’re with that kid. He’s smelly!”.
What are you? A mysterious, undefinable observer who no-one can quite pin-down? I know what your political position is! You even have said it in this thread!
Indeed I did not. I said you’re insouciant about it in a donor to a party you don’t have an instant antipathy towards; preferring to divert the discussion to a zero sum game between that and an entirely unrelated leader of fascist murder gangs.
Which you are.
~alec