Beholden to fat cats

Tory donors gave the Conservative’s £25m – more than double the £9.5m Labour received – before this year’s general election and the party still lost 13 MPs.

Donor lists released by the Electoral Commission show the Conservative’s election war-chest was bolstered by huge donations from corporate and big business figures.

Despite the cash, the number of Tory seats fell from 331 to 318, meaning the Conservatives spent around ÂŁ2m for every MP they lost. Meanwhile Labour, with a significantly smaller election fund, gained 31 seats.

A number of Tory donors and their firms have been fined, or are being investigated by the authorities, for wrong doing.

Malcolm Healy donated ÂŁ100,000 and was fined by HMRC in 2015 for making ÂŁ8.6m in a tax avoidance scheme.

Investigation

Ayman and Sawsan Asfari gave ÂŁ100,000. Ayman has been questioned by the Serious Fraud Office as part of an investigation into the Petrofac oil firm.

Rainy City Investments, owned by brothers Fred and Peter Done, also donated £100,000. In 2016, gambling firm Betfred, which Fred Done retains “significant control” over, was fined a record £800,000 because it “did not adhere to money laundering regulations”.

The biggest donation to the Tory party came from JCB, which gave £1.5m. Mark Bamford, brother of the construction vehicle manufacturer’s chairman Lord Bamford, also forked out £750,000.

Hedge fund manager John Armitage gave the Tories ÂŁ1.1m, while Addison Lee taxi firm founder John Griffin donated ÂŁ1.033m.

In total, the Conservatives received ÂŁ24,840,627 during the three-month period to June. Labour received ÂŁ9,492,519, much of which was donated by trade unions representing the interests of working people.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said, “Just a brief look at the Tories’ donors list demonstrates the narrow corporate interests the party is beholden to – hedge funds and other business fat cats.

“They flock to the party that aims to undermine working people and trade union rights while ensuring ever greater concentrations of wealth and opportunity accrue only to the few.”

Turner added, “Labour, on the other hand, is being supported by hundreds of thousands of trade union members and ordinary men and women, young and old, who are desperate to see an end to the misery and poverty of a failed economy, cuts and privatisation of our national assets.

“Labour is standing up for the many not the few, creating that fairer, more equal society we can be proud of once again.”