Lord Ashcroft casts a shadow across the election in Pendle.

In my election literature and on my website I make it crystal clear in the plainest terms that I believe he is a tax dodger who has cheated the Revenue out of millions.

The way he is seeking to buy the election in Pendle is set out elsewhere in my website.

The Public Administration Select Committee held an evidence session on 18 March 2010 to which we invited Baroness Brenda Dean, a former member of the now defunct Political Honours Scrutiny Committee, and Sir Hayden Phillips, the senior civil servant responsible for processing Ashcroft’s peerage in 2000.

The Committee invited Lord Ashcroft and William Hague to come before it but we were told by the Shadow Leader of the House, Sir George Young, that they were “not inclined” to attend.

Peers can refuse to attend Commons Select Committees. There is nothing you can do about that. But MPs who refuse can be reported to the House.

My friend, Tony Wright, who chaired the Committee and is now retired from Parliament, felt we had done enough to put into the public domain the material on how Ashcroft secured his peerage.

Even now, the whole story has not been told. Both Ashcroft and Hague had the opportunity to come before us and explain everything. For their own reasons, which they would not disclose to us, they chose not to.

You can read the one-off evidence session.