Lord Ashcroft to leave fortune to charity

Michael Ashcroft, the billionaire peer who has controversially bankrolled the Conservative Party in recent years, making it a real threat to Labour in marginal seats, has decided not to be as generous with his own children as he has been with the Tories. He has announced that he will leave only 20 per cent of his estimated £1.1 billion fortune to his heirs, and will donate the rest to charity.

It is one of the biggest bequests to charity ever made in Britain and he is understood to have made plans as to how the money should be spent, saying: "It will give my family and my kids something very enjoyable to do during their lives."

The decision will not apparently come as a horrible shock to his children. "They've known my views for a long time," he says, after announcing the bequest in a new epilogue to his book, Dirty Politics, Dirty Times. "I don't think anybody should be handed something on a platter."

Ashcroft, now 62, made his first step on the road to riches when he bought a cleaning company with a £15,000 loan back in 1972. His interests since have included security services and car auctions in the US, and financial services in Belize where he also claims nationality.

His bankrolling of the Conservatives, in the face of a ban on overseas donations, has led to questions being asked about his tax status. Among his Labour detractors, he is known as 'Lord Cashcroft'. But he is already famous for his philanthropy, having spent £20m launching and sustaining Crimestoppers, which over 20 years has led to 86,000 arrests and the recovery for more than £100m worth of stolen property.

He enjoys the power to shock. As president of the London City Ballet when Diana Princess of Wales was its patron in the 1990s, he once attended a fundraiser at the Wembley greyhound stadium with the princess, who was to present the trophy.

As they approached the winning dog, Aschcroft whispered: "Ma'am, it's a tradition at this point that you lift the tail of the winning greyhound." As Diana reached forward to do so, Ashcroft stopped her: "I was only joking, ma'am." ·