Tories’ election guru questioned over Malta company interests

Malta’s attractive tax avoidance structure is featuring in the general elections in the United Kingdom, after Labour turned its guns on prime minister David Cameron’s closest aide over his offshore interests.

Labour wants Lynton Crosby, the Conservative Party’s election campaign chief, to explain why he is linked to two companies based in Malta.

The Australian election guru, who helped Boris Johnson claim the 2012 London mayorship, is a director of Rutland Ltd and a shareholder in Rutland Holdings Ltd.

The companies are set up at the Portomaso address in Malta of Bentley Trust (Malta), a firm that advertises specialist financial services including “legitimate mitigation” of tax.

Rutland Holdings is the parent company of Rutland Ltd. Crosby is a 17.5% shareholder in Rutland Holdings, together with Australian multi-millionaire Robert James Champion de Crespigny, and Australian campaign strategists Mark Fullbrook and Mark Textor.

Textor is a conservative political campaign strategist and founder of CrosbyTextor, an international consulting firm. Fullbrook is a former fead of campaigns for the British Conservatives and the deputy director of the successful Boris Johnson 2012 London mayoral campaign. Champion de Crespigny is the chairman of CrosbyTextor.

Catherine Place Investments is also a nominal 1% shareholder in Rutland Ltd. CPI, owned by The Bentley Trust (Malta), and has shares in other Malta-registered firms connected to the Champion de Crespigny.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee took companies like Amazon and Starbucks to task for avoiding tax, said: “Few people in the Conservative party wield as much power as Lynton Crosby. Looking at the sheer complexity of his network of offshore interests, it is difficult to see what purpose these arrangements can possibly serve other than to avoid tax.”

A spokesman for Crosby told the London Evening Standard that “any claim, or attempt to claim, Mr Crosby has attempted to reduce his tax liability in the UK is malicious and libellous and will be treated as such.”

Hodge has called on Crosby to say whether he had avoided any tax in the UK, either through being a non-domiciled resident or via his companies.

Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant who writes the blog Tax Research UK, described Malta as a tax haven where “profits are routed into and out of Europe to minimise the tax charge for those who use companies registered there. This raises questions about why Lynton Crosby has a company in Malta, what motive for locating it there might be other than tax avoidance and what this says about a person seeking to help the election of a government that says it will be dedicated to tackling tax avoidance.”