London, July 7 (IANS) Four British peers, including Indian origin metal magnate Lord Bagri, have resigned from the House of Lords as a new law comes into force Wednesday.
The new law stipulates that in order to sit in either house of parliament, people should be registered in Britain for tax purposes.
A fifth peer, eminent architect Lord Foster, has also resigned, according to The Guardian.
Many more peers are expected to resign before the Wednesday night deadline, including one of the richest business tycoons, Lord Swraj Paul, who had earlier assured compliance with the law.
The law is applicable to those peers who are non-domiciles but living in Britain. It was passed by parliament in April and peers were given three months time to comply with the new rules or leave. The period ends Wednesday.
Lord Foster and Lord Bagri resigned Tuesday night, according to The Guardian. Lady Dunn resigned last week, as did two others, Lord McAlpine and Lord Laidlaw.
Lord Bagri of Regent’s Park, born Raj Kumar Bagri, has been a Conservative peer since 1997. He began his career as a 15-year-old apprentice metal trader in Kolkata and went on to set up Minmetco after he came to Britain as a 19-year-old. He has a 50 million-pound home in London’s Regent’s Park and a home in India. Lord Bagri is a former chairman of the London Metal Exchange.
House of Lords officials have confirmed that the departing peers will retain their titles for life though they would no longer have access to parliament or debates.
Before the new law was passed, non-domicile status was given to some people who were based or born outside Britain. It meant they did not have to pay taxes on the money they made outside Britain as long as it remained out of the country.
The resigning peers have non-domicile status.
Lord Laidlaw is a Scottish businessman based in Monaco. Baroness Dunn, former chairman of the HSBC bank, has roots in Hong Kong. Lord McAlpine lives in Italy. Lord Foster has offices in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Madrid and New York.
When the law was passed in April, Paul had told the British media that he would ‘fully comply’ with changes to the rules.
He was then quoted as saying: ‘On the issue of taxation position of peers, of course it goes without saying that I’ll be fully complying with the change of law which the government is bringing forward. I strongly support the government proposals in relation to the taxation status of peers and MPs and the membership of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.’
The new law was necessitated in the wake of a controversy over the tax status of deputy chairman of the Conservative party, Lord Ashcroft.
He had confirmed in March that he was a non-domicile, which was news to his own party. The government then decided to bring in a law to make the tax status of peers transparent. At that point Ashcroft had suggested that he would remain in the Lords under the new rules, indicating that he would relinquish his non-domicile status.
(Venkata Vemuri can be contacted at venkata.v@ians.in)
