Lord Ashcroft promotion threatens to create rift with Belize | Politics | The Observer .

David Cameron was warned yesterday that Britain's relations with a key Central American ally would be damaged if Lord Ashcroft was given a government post.

In a stinging attack, Dean Barrow, the Belizean prime minister, depicted the billionaire Tory deputy chairman as a "relentless foe" and declared that a "state of war" existed with the peer.

Barrow told the Tory leader to bear in mind that Britain had a military training base in his country when he decided whether to promote Ashcroft after the election. The peer has extensive business interests in Belize where his father served as a diplomat.

Barrow said: "It's not for me to presume to advise Mr Cameron. All I can do is to say I would hope that a practical problem would be managed in such a way as not to damage relations between Belize and the UK. We wouldn't want to see institutional reels of collaboration and communication damaged."

Interesting. Barrow has courage and conviction. It's a shame more in secrecy jurisdictions do not share those qualities.