Firm run by David Cameron’s election guru Lynton Crosby lost £1 million in two years, as pressure mounts on unanswered tax questions

A British company run by the Conservative’s election guru Lynton Crosby lost more than £1 million in two years, public records show.

Accounts filed by Crosby Textor Ltd reveal that the firm, owned by Mr Crosby and his business partner Mark Textor made losses of £511,000 in 2014 and £510,000 in 2013.

Another company also owned by Mr Textor and Mr Crosby is recorded a making a profit of £449,000 over the same period.

The filings would seem to suggest that overall Mr Crosby’s operations in the UK have been loss making over the period – despite the substantial contract with the Conservatives to run the party’s election campaign which was agreed in 2012.

Mr Crosby’s financial affairs have come under a spotlight after it emerged that Mr Crosby is a director and a shareholder of firms based in the tax haven of Malta.

One of the companies – Rutland Ltd – was set up by Bentley Trust, a firm specialising in “wealth management” and “legitimate mitigation” of tax.

Rutland Ltd did not file its 2014 accounts and earlier this year it filed for an 18-month “extension of period allowed for laying accounts”. Despite being based in the tax haven of Malta, 90 per cent of its interest are understood to lie outside Malta.

The firm is part-owned by Catherine Place Investments, a company that is itself owned by APG Ltd, which is based in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands.

Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and author of the Tax Research UK blog, said there were questions over whether the Conservative party were paying Mr Crosby directly or through his consultancy firms, which he said could allow him to avoid or reduce the UK tax on the work he is doing to help the Conservative party win the election.

“He could end up effectively working here and paying little or no UK tax, despite the fact that he is present in the UK,” he said.

“Certainly there is evidence that he is putting structures in place that are tax driven and tax motivated and they are being managed by firms that say they are in the business of tax mitigations, in which case there does appear to be some tax motive in his business arrangements.”

Margaret Hodge, who has played a key role in challenging multinational corporations such as Google and Starbucks over tax avoidance in her role as chair of the Public Accounts Committee, called on David Cameron to “come clean” over whether Mr Crosby’s personal tax affairs had influenced the party’s decision to oppose Labour’s crack down on tax avoidance.

“It is a matter of public interest, in light of his tax status and offshore interests, whether Lynton Crosby has influenced the Tories’ policy positions,” she said.

“What discussions has Mr Crosby had with David Cameron about policy surrounding tax avoidance and non-dom status?

“In light of the public policy implications, it is important to know whether David Cameron is aware, and is comfortable with, his campaign manager’s personal tax arrangements. So, is David Cameron aware of Lynton Crosby’s personal finance arrangements?”

Mr Crosby’s spokesman told The Independent in a statement that he had never avoided or attempted to avoid paying his full tax obligations in the UK.

It stated: “It has been a matter of public record since 2013… that Lynton Crosby pays tax in the UK, on his UK earnings, at exactly the same rate as any UK citizen. There is no public interest in publishing false allegations about the financial affairs of a private individual.

“There is nothing new in this. It is simply a gratuitous attempt to re-publish year-and-a-half-old, unfounded allegations. This information has been public for years, even before it was reported back in 2013,” the spokesman added.

“Rutland is a perfectly legitimate Malta-based company that fulfils all of its tax obligations in Malta and its fully audited accounts and directorships have been public for years.

“Rutland has never done any business in the UK, nor paid wages nor dividends to anyone in the UK. It has not received fees from any UK company, body, entity or individual.

“Any claim, or attempt to claim, that Mr Crosby avoids, or attempts to avoid, paying anything but his full tax obligations is categorically wrong and defamatory and will rightly be treated as such. Further, any claim, or attempt to claim, that Rutland was set up, or is used, to avoid paying UK tax is also categorically wrong and defamatory.”