"In 2003, the wealthy Tory donor Michael Ashcroft was locked in a typically belligerent piece of litigation. The Belize-based entrepreneur was determined to force disclosure of Whitehall files which he hoped might prove that Labour "dirty tricks" had hampered him in his quest for a British peerage.

"His seat in the Lords had been only finally been provided three years earlier, after repeated - and shrill - private demands to the Labour prime minister from then Tory leader, William Hague.

"Those same Whitehall documents have now, however, come back to potentially embarrass Ashcroft in 2010."

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