Get Involved - Ask Your MP Difficult Questions

Action 4 Equality Scotland is not the only organisation encouraging its readers to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into an issue.

Here's an article from the Guardian newspaper inviting readers to quiz their local MPs about the funding of the Tory party - a good story for a Labour-leaning paper, to be sure.

But the principle is just the same when it comes to North Lanarkshire - and other councils - that are dragging their feet on equal pay.

What do the local MPs and MSPs have to say - they have strong views on everything else under the sun?

So, let's hear their views on equal pay - on North Lanarkshire's treatment of Home Care workers.

North Lanarkshire Council may be Labour-controlled, but - as the Guardian article implies - that's all the more reason for Labour MPs and MSPs to speak out.


"Get Involved: ask your MP difficult questions
The Guardian has been trying for three days to get William Hague to spell out what he knew about Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs and when he found out he was a non-dom. As Tory leader from 1997-2001, Hague lobbied hard for his peerage (see the letters between Hague, Tony Blair and the honours committee).

But so far Hague, along with other senior Tories, has refused to respond to us in any way. What we would like is if you could put our questions, below, to your local Tory MP or candidate and let us know what responses you get, or if they too get ignored.

Please email what you find to politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk with "Ashcroft questions" (or similar) in the subject field. You can find your Tory MP or candidate and their contact details on the Conservative's website.

And here are the questions:

1. In 1999 William Hague wrote to Tony Blair assuring him that Lord Ashcroft would change his tax status by the following financial year with the effect that he would pay "tens of millions a year in tax". Did Lord Ashcroft indeed pay tens of millions a year in UK tax since becoming a peer?

2. How is Lord Ashcroft's non-dom status consistent with his "solemn and binding" undertaking to become a permanent UK resident?

3. When did William Hague become aware that Lord Ashcroft was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes?

4. When did David Cameron become aware that Lord Ashcroft was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes?

5. Do you believe Lord Ashcroft misled William Hague when he promised to become a permanent resident as a condition for receiving a peerage?"

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