British businesses should set up a base in Malta so they can easily trade with the EU and deal with the “period of uncertainty” caused by Brexit, according to the billionaire Conservative donor and Leave supporter Michael Ashcroft.
A “special report” written by the peer details the merits of Malta as a base ahead of Paris, Frankfurt and other large European cities, while making only a brief reference to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as “reputational damage” for the island nation.
Writing for the website Conservative Home, Lord Ashcroft says: “I believe that Malta represents the best destination for ambitious UK firms that must have a post-Brexit presence in the European Union.”
The peer added that while he believed that the UK remained “the best location for nearly all UK companies … some UK firms have understandably decided, particularly in a period of uncertainty, that they will need a base in the EU in future”.
The peer is one of a number of high profile Brexiters who have been advised over relocating business operations elsewhere in the EU post-Brexit. The investment firm part owned by Jacob Rees-Mogg set up a fund in Ireland in March and warned investors of the “considerable uncertainty” posed by Brexit.
Ashcroft extols the country’s sunny Mediterranean climate in the piece that also features quotes from Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and praises its “wonderful quality of life” describing it as a country where “violent crime is rare”.
The article only mentions the killing of Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist who exposed corruption among the country’s ruling elites, in a paragraph towards the end.
“Malta has also suffered reputational damage in the past year from allegations of political corruption/money laundering and the tragic murder of the woman journalist at the centre of many of the claims,” Ashcroft writes.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia, aged 53 and a mother of three, was killed by a car bomb on October 16 2017: her three alleged killers have been charged in connection with her death, while the ‘Mr Big’ who apparently ordered the murder remains at large.”
The family of the murdered journalist believe that three men awaiting trial for the crime were acting on orders from inside Malta, while they and politicians from outside the country have called for the investigation to be widened to pursue those “with a motivation for silencing” her.
Ashcroft, 72, is a former Conservative party treasurer and deputy chairman who has given millions to the party. The pro-Brexit peer has substantial business interests in the small Caribbean nation of Belize and writes political books, including a controversial biography of David Cameron that featured a lurid allegation involving a dead pig’s head. Ashcroft is no longer a member of the House of Lords having resigned in 2015.
