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Brexiter Lord Ashcroft advises UK companies to move to Malta to secure “European base”

Staunch Brexiter Lord Ashcroft has advised UK firms to move to Malta after Brexit.

In a blog on Conservative Home the outspoken peer said “as a hard-nosed, self-made businessman, I believe that Malta represents the best destination for ambitious UK firms that must have a post-Brexit presence in the European Union”.

He said the “diverse, open-market economy” makes it an attractive place to move for UK firms that “have understandably decided, particularly in a period of uncertainty, that they will need a base in the EU in future”.

In a blog posted the day before the EU referendum in 2016 Lord Ashcroft mapped out the reasons he is for Brexit, saying “leaving the European Union would not put a bomb under the British economy or end Western political civilization as we know it”.

He went on to say that “when it comes to trade with EU partners….. I know from my own business career, there are plenty of opportunities outside Europe”.

The peer was implicated in a BBC Panorama report late last year over his tax dealings following an investigation that revealed he received payments of £150 million from a Bermuda offshore trust.

Malta has a remittance-based tax system that means non-Maltese individuals can get a very beneficial tax treatment by becoming a resident of Malta.

As Ashcroft points out in his blog, published today, he has “long had a soft spot for Malta”.

I wonder why.

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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