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“BHI Corporation offers international banking services through the Belize Bank Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary,” the firm said. “The Belize Bank is the largest commercial banking operation in Belize and offers a full range of services to international customers.”A statement issued by Mr Ashcroft’s solicitors this week did not mention his recent activities in the offshore finance business. Until last month, Mr Ashcroft also had a stake in the firm that ran the Belize shipping register, which has been criticised for being a “flag of convenience”.The firm also sold international company bank accounts with the Belize Bank, a subsidiary of BHI Corporation, which could be opened only by offshore companies. “A Belizean trust is relieved entirely from all local taxation including duties charged on the death of the settlor … A disposition of property into a Belizean trust may not be set aside to satisfy the claim of a divorced spouse, disinherited heir or creditor in bankruptcy,” it said.Among the other services offered by the firm were “International Business Companies”, which could be used to minimise tax, to keep investments in a company name rather than that of an individual and to register ships and yachts through offshore companies, the literature said. This feature has attracted many applicants from the Far East, Russia and Eastern Europe.”Among the other facilities offered by the firm were offshore trusts designed, according to their promotional literature, to avoid taxes, death duties, creditors and divorce settlements. The main priority of many applicants is to obtain a Belize passport which is issued upon [granting] of citizenship.

It is an extremely useful travel document and allows visa-free entry to a significant number of countries worldwide. But I really do question whether the Tories ought to be taking money from a man who has made it in such peculiar and controversial circumstances.”The passport payment conferred full economic and political rights on the applicant and his family, as well as alternative passports, the company’s website promised, adding: “There is, however, no requirement for new citizens to relocate to Belize. “Nobody has any objection to Mr Ashcroft making a fortune and, if he chooses, donating part of it to the Conservative Party. “Surely there must be a way of making an honest penny without trading in passports,” he said.

The billionaire businessman has given pounds 2m to the Conservatives in the past two years.Last night Peter Bradley, the Labour MP for The Wrekin, who has questioned Mr Ashcroft’s links with the Conservatives, said voters should be told where the party’s funding came from. The passports, which are also sold by other companies under Belize law, would appeal to people who wanted to keep a low profile while travelling.The revelation drew fresh protests from Labour MPs, who hope to make Mr Ashcroft’s activities in Belize an issue with voters in tomorrow’s Eddisbury by-election. However, an earlier announcement omitted specifically to mention the sale of the financial services arm.Yesterday a website for BHI Offshore Financial Services was still offering “economic citizenship” of Belize in return for a non-refundable pounds 26,000 “investment” in the country’s government, plus professional fees of pounds 6,600. The firm also offered to sell offshore companies and trusts, which could make investors’ money safe from tax authorities, creditors, former spouses and even disinherited children.
Mr Ashcroft, who is the Belize ambassador to the United Nations, sold the financial services arm of his company in June as part of a wider restructuring, a spokeswoman said yesterday. The passports were available quite legally until as recently as last month through a firm called BHI Offshore Financial Services, a part of Mr Ashcroft’s BHI Corporation. Holders had the right to “trouble-free travel” around the world without visas.

MICHAEL ASHCROFT, the controversial Tory party treasurer, sold Belize passports for pounds 33,000 each, The Independent can reveal. What Is It?

Katie Mitchell’s fine production of Jean Genet’s 1947 psychodrama about two maids plotting to murder their mistress, in a new translation by Martin Crimp.
Who’s In It?Anastasia Hille and Aisling O’Sullivan rise to the challenge magnificently as the downtrodden servants.What They Say About It”Martin Crimp has contributed a lucid new translation that embraces the mock-ceremonious vitality of Genet’s maidspeak without making it sound as hideously floral as their aprons,” Dominic Cavendish, The Independent.”As Mitchell directs it, The Maids is Genet’s lament for the powerless and unfulfilled; and it still has a point today,” Benedict Nightingale, The Times.”Mitchell’s production makes the tangle of warped emotions more than usually dark and oppressive,” Nick Curtis, Evening Standard.”The miracle of Katie Mitchell’s superb new staging is its creepy, genuine terror,” Michael Coveney, Daily Mail.Where You Can See ItThe Maids is at the Young Vic, London SE1 (0171-928 6363) to 7 Aug. Brian Baldock, chairman of Mencap, says: “Although we are pleased that the Government is reviving this vitally important issue… people with learning disabilities and their carers need legislation to protect them, and not just more proposals.”. These are expected to include the legal status of living wills.There is also expected to be provision for an extended jurisdiction for the Court of Protection, which would resolve disputes concerning a patient’s capacity to make decisions, and clashes between doctors and carers.While many mental health groups support what the Government is doing, the speed of the progress of the reforms is causing some concern.

Said Mr Vaz: “Both sides, with equal sincerity, held very strong and widely differing views These are very sensitive issues. We are still considering the best way forward on the medical issues raised in `Who Decides?’ [the Government's Green Paper on mental health law].”The full proposals for a reform in mental health law are due to be published in October. Mr Vaz said that responses to the Government’s consultation paper on reform of the law had revealed deeply divided opinions over living wills – written advance directives that set out clearly how patients want doctors to deal with their medical condition when they are unable to make the decision themselves. The current enduring power of attorney allows people only to choose someone to make financial decisions.While the Government feels that there is enough consensus to bring in these new powers, the message is less clear about living wills. This would allow anyone to nominate someone to make health care and welfare decisions on their behalf when they are mentally incapacitated to do so. He added: “When people are unable to decide for themselves we want to make sure that their interests are protected and the best possible decisions are made for them.” He said that the new laws would provide a “clear legal framework for carers responsible for day-to-day decisions on behalf of an incapacitated person.” But he added: “At the same time it would place a responsibility on carers, doctors and social services professionals to take into account whether someone would be able to make a decision themselves with the right kind of support.”Mr Vaz said there was also a wide-ranging support for a new “continuing power of attorney”.