Panama - Top Flight Tax Avoidance

The data leak that is the Panama Papers has identified a range of tax avoiders, many of whom reside in the UK, and some who are associated with the Conservative Party. One of these, now a peer of the realm, is Howard Flight, whose occasionally unfortunate views have not prevented his becoming a celebrated figure in the party and distinguished elder statesman. But who is Flight, and why does his name cause some unease among Tories?

Flight, now Baron Flight of Worcester in the county of Worcestershire, suffered from the bout of discipline and transparency that followed the Tories’ loss of Tatton - which should have been one of its safest seats - in 1997 after one Mostyn Neil Hamilton was trounced by Martin Bell, the contest signifying all that was bad about Tory Sleaze. It wouldn’t happen again. Under Michael Howard, 2005 saw two candidates forcibly deselected.

First of these was Adrian Hilton in Slough, for calling “Shagger” Major’s signing of the Maastricht Treaty “an act of treason”, and then came Flight in South Downs and Arundel, for letting the cat out of the bag and telling that, if the Tories won that year’s General Election, cuts would follow. Both constituency associations were threatened with disbandment. In Slough it actually happened. Flight’s capitulated and binned him.

By 2010, Flight had been miraculously rehabilitated, only to open mouth and insert boot once again when he told the Evening Standard that restricting child benefit for high end taxpayers was not a good idea, saying “We're going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it's jolly expensive. But for those on benefits, there is every incentive. Well, that's not very sensible”.

The idea that the lower orders should not be encouraged to breed went down like the proverbial cup of cold sick with Young Dave, who demanded, and got, an apology from Flight, together with unequivocal withdrawal of his remarks. But that, together with his earlier faux pas, showed the measure of the man. He suffered from an excess of candour, and an equal excess of snobbish dismissiveness.

This did not stop Flight from being given a regular column at Conservative Home, and nor did it count against him with columnists such as Ed “Case” West of the Telegraph, or indeed James “Saviour of Western civilisation” who gave his praise to The Great Man in the Spectator. The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the “breeding” comments were historically all the fault of the left.

They were all ready and willing to defend Flight, but now he’s been exposed as yet another in the long line of Tory tax avoiders, there is silence. Will he still be welcome at ConHome? He’ll no doubt be wandering round from his Westminster home to Parliament to claim his expenses on occasion. And taking advantage of all those services provided on the backs of those who actually pony up the taxes.

It’s interesting what the right-leaning commentariat looks up to. But not a surprise.