David Cameron's election guru Lynton Crosby uses mysterious offshore tax haven

David Cameron’s election guru owns and runs a mysterious offshore company in Malta, the Mirror can reveal.

The link between Lynton Crosby and the notorious tax haven will cause acute embarrassment to the PM, who has described legal ploys to avoid tax as “morally wrong”.

Our investigation has found that Mr Crosby’s Maltese firm Rutland is run from the offices of a trust firm specialising in “wealth preservation” and hiding the true identity of company owners.

Mr Crosby’s spokesman yesterday refused our requests to reveal who really owns a large stake in Rutland, which has been put into the trust.

He confirmed that Mr Crosby, an Australian who lives in the UK, is a non-domicile – or “non-dom” – and insisted he paid his “full tax obligations”.

Last year, in the wake of revelations about TV comedian Jimmy Carr using a legal scheme to avoid tax, Mr Cameron said: “Some of these schemes we have seen are quite frankly morally wrong.

"It is not fair on hardworking people who do the right thing and pay their taxes to see these sorts of scams.”

Margaret Hodge, head of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “It beggars belief that the Tories are taking advice from a man who operates out of a notorious tax haven.”

Labour MP Grahame Morris added: “They talk about One Nation but the guy pulling the strings is not resident for tax purposes.

"It is bare-faced hypocrisy.”

Labour vice-chairman Michael Dugher said: “Not only is this cigarette lobbyist running around at the heart of Downing Street, it now seems he has other serious questions to answer about his business”.

Campaigner Richard Murphy, of Tax Research, said: “It’s legal for a non-dom to avoid tax on non-UK source income.

"The question is should the adviser to a party that says it wants to end tax haven abuse take advantage of that opportunity and stay in their post?”

Mr Crosby’s UK firm, CTF Partners, is reportedly being paid £200,000 a year for working one day a week on plans to get the Tories elected in 2015.

The firm, which Mr Crosby runs with fellow Australian Mark Textor and British spindoctor Mark Fullbrook, has offices in London, Sydney and Milan.

All three men are also shareholders in Rutland Limited, a firm set up in Malta in 2011 to provide “consultancy and technical services”.

There is no suggestion that Mr Crosby or Rutland have done anything illegal.

A spokesman for CTF Partners said: “Rutland is a legitimate company, which fulfils all its tax obligations in Malta.

"It has never done any business in the UK or paid any dividends to anyone in the UK.

“It has not received fees from any UK company, body, or individual. Any claim, or attempt to claim, that it was set up, or is used, to avoid paying UK tax is categorically wrong and highly damaging.”

A Tory spokesman declined to comment on Rutland’s tax affairs or confirm how much it was paying CTF.

He said: “It’s a private matter.”

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The paper trail linking Lynton Crosby, Malta, and a secretive trust

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Cameron on tax

In January 2013, to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: “Companies need to wake up and smell the coffee, because the customers who buy from them have had enough.

In July 2013, Mr Cameron warned that “taxpayers, governments and businesses all suffer when some companies manipulate the tax system to avoid paying their fair share of taxes”.