Billionaires give Tories over £2m since election called
Labour has called them the party of billionaires
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.
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