Billionaires give Tories over £2m since election called

Left Foot Forward

Labour has called them the party of billionaires

Picture of John Gore

The Conservative Party has received over £5m in donations since the general election was called – with at least £2m of it coming from billionaires.

Figures released by the Electoral Commission appear to back up what Jeremy Corbyn said at his manifesto launch – that the Conservative Party is the party of billionaires.

Labour Party research has previously indicated that one in three of the UK’s 151 billionaires donates to the Conservative Party.

Among the billionaires donating to the Tory Party in the last few weeks have been:

  • John Gore, a theatre producer, is worth £1.5bn according to the Sunday Times Rich List. He gave £1m.
  • Tony Gallagher, a property developer worth £1bn and lives in an Oxfordshire mansion. He gave £500,000.
  • Will Adderley, who inherited the Dunelm business from his father, and whose family have £1.42bn. He gave £500,000.
  • The Reuben brothers, who made their fortune in the Russian aluminium business in the 1990s, and are now worth £19bn. They gave £200,000.
  • Robert Edmiston, who was made a Tory Lord in 2010 and is worth over £1bn. In 2013, he suggested that gay marriage would lead to people marrying their relatives. He gave £250,000 to the party.
  • Jasminder Singh, hotel boss, gave £50,000. He is worth £1.1bn.

As well as the billionaires, many multi-millionairs have donated to the Tory Party including Mike Gooley, John Beckwith, Andrew Law and the McCarthy family.

The Brexit Party also had a super-rich donor – investment manager Jeremy Hosking, who is valued at £375m. He was the party’s only big donor, giving £250,000.

The Liberal Democrats receiveed £275,000 from a variety of individuals – including £60,000 from fund manager Davide Serra and £50,000 from investor Joe Zammit-Lucia.

The Labour Party received just £60,000 from individuals. Its biggest individual donor (Ecotricity boss Dale Vince) gave just £15,000. It also received £153,000 from trade unions Unite and Unison.

The Green Party received £30,000 while the SNP and Plaid Cymru did not feature in the data.

The data only includes donations of £7,500 and above made from November 6 onwards.

Other Conservative backers include the owner of a club accused of victimising workers, the leader of a controversial fox hunting group and a fund manager nicknamed Keyser Soze.

No related posts.

2 Responses to “Billionaires give Tories over £2m since election called”

  1. Chester Draws

    That’s half the story.

    The other half is how billionaires on the Left put their money into extreme Left wing groups. Who do you think funds Extinction Rebellion? George Soros has been putting massive amounts into various groups on the left for ages now. The difference is merely that the Labour Party is sidetracked, not that the Right get all the money.

    And that’s what yanks Corbyn’s chain. The rich will happily support the Left (the US Democrats for instance aren’t short of big money) provided it’s not advancing insane financial policies. But Corbyn’s going all out on a return to the 1950’s with nationalisations, massive regulation and the like, and there’s a price to be paid for that.

    Labour Party research has previously indicated that one in three of the UK’s 151 billionaires donates to the Conservative Party.

    So a party that gets one third of the vote gets one-third of a group to support them? Outrage! The amazing thing is that it’s only one-third. From the rhetoric you’d think it would be all of them.

  2. Richard Mckie

    A quaint theory, resting on some dubious and inaccurate assertions, especially the description of “insane” financial policies. Insane only to those whose greed knows no bounds. Many of us think it’s long overdue.
    And the whiff of a smear mentioning Soros….this e mail is a thoroughly indecent proposal from a rich man’s apologist.

Comments are closed.