Tory ministers wine and dine 45 donors in private fundraising dinners
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron and his cabinet have recently hosted private dinners for 45 wealthy businessmen and hedge fund bosses who are helping fund the party in marginal seats that could swing the outcome of the election, it has emerged. According to the latest transparency filing by the Conservatives, the private dinners were held for members of the prime minister’s “leaders group” who have collectively donated more than £40m to the party since the last election. Overall, donors who belong to the club have targeted about £5m at local constituency associations, of which more than 70 are marginals. In exchange for donating £50,000 or more each, the donors get access to the prime minister and his cabinet at private dinners in a deal that was revealed in 2012. The dinners are different from the Conservatives’ big fundraising events, such as last week’s black and white ball in Mayfair, central London, at which guests bid for the chance to go shoe shopping with Theresa May, the home secretary, and jogging with Nicky Morgan, the education secretary. An elite few are helping the Tories try to buy the election The most elite group of donors are instead invited to regular, more intimate meals with Cameron and key ministers where they can discuss politics and policy. The latest filing shows ministers entertained 45 donors – all but two of whom are male – in the last quarter of 2014. Cameron also hosted one hedge fund boss, Sir Michael Hintze, and his wife at Chequers in October. An analysis by Labour found more than 40% of the money donated by the leaders group came from the hedge fund industry, which was given a £145m tax break by George Osborne in 2013. Jon Ashworth, Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, said the filing showed the Conservatives had become “the political wing of the hedge fund industry”. “An elite few are helping the Tories try to buy the election. These are the same millionaires and hedge funds who the Tories have given a tax cut to,” he said. One of those to attend was Georg von Opel, a Swiss national. The donor’s office said previously: “Mr von Opel … is a Swiss national and a Swiss resident since 1973.” Other wealthy donors who attended the dinners include Michael Spencer, the founder of City inter-dealer broker Icap, Howard Shore, founder and largest shareholder in small company brokers Shore Capital, and Lord Farmer, the metals trading tycoon and Conservative party treasurer. Another is Alexander Temerko, a director of Offshore Group Newcastle, who told the Newcastle Journal in November: “The Conservative party today helps business and construction business, not so effectively as me and my colleagues expected but it is still true. They spend time and they listen to us, they change the law and they change the regulation, and the regulation today is simpler and much more effective and today there is real partnership between business and government.” |