Henning Conle was the ultimate source of a donation of €132,000 to the anti-immigrant and far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)
A billionaire property owner’s company donated money to an elite Tory private members club which helps bankroll the Conservative Party, while he himself also given money to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in Germany.
The elite Tory club, the Carlton Club has long funded the Tories and has handed out more than £247,000 to the Conservative Party and its MPs since the last election.
OpenDemocracy reports that ‘one of London’s biggest property investment firms, Strandbrook Ltd, has given £150,000 to the Carlton Club and its political committee – which hosts speeches and is closely aligned with the Conservative Party – since the last election’.
Among Strandbrook Ltd’s directors are tycoon Henning Conle and his daughter Johanna Conle. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Henning Conle and his family are worth an estimated £1.1bn.
A number of reports in the German media have claimed Henning Conle was the ultimate source of a donation of €132,000 (£115,000) to the anti-immigrant and far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The AfD has whipped up animosity towards refugees and is also known for its Islamophobic views. In 2016, a policy paper for the AfD ran with the headline: “Islam is not part of Germany”. The paper demanded bans on minarets on mosques, the call to prayer, full-face veils for women and headscarves in schools.
Reuters has also previously reported that a senior German government official accused the far-right AfD party of helping make anti-Semitism “presentable” again in Germany by challenging a longtime consensus about how to deal with its Nazi past.
According to electoral commission records, the donations from Strandbrook Ltd to the Carlton Club have been regular: £50,000 in January 2020, 2022 and 2023.
“In turn, the club and its political committee have handed out thousands of pounds to Conservative Party candidates – often in tranches of £5,000 or £15,000 at a time. They include donations to Lee Anderson, the deputy chair of the party, and former defence minister Sarah Atherton.”
The Tory Party clearly has no problem with taking funds linked to those who have also funded the far-right.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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