The Conservative Party’s biggest donors — from Mohammed Mansour to Frank Hurst

Mohamed Mansour, the Conservative Party’s senior treasurer, was appointed to the post after donating £5m to the party and was knighted on the recommendation of Rishi Sunak.

Mr Mansour is a businessman and former Egyptian politician who has made numerous charitable donations over the years, including to causes raising funds for Covid-19 victims in the UK. No 10 people pointed this out in response to concerns about his knighthood.

Labor leader Anneliese Dodds said: “This is either the arrogance of a powerful man who no longer cares what the public thinks, or the joyful self-indulgence of a man who has no hope of being Prime Minister for much longer. .”

It comes after the Conservative Party was embroiled in a political row after top donor Frank Hester allegedly made racist comments to colleagues about MP Diane Abbott.

The West Yorkshire businessman reportedly said Ms Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”.

Hester has donated more than £10 million to the Conservative Party over the past two years, making her the biggest donor during Rishi Sunak’s tenure as prime minister. Mr. Mansour is the third-largest donor.

Here are the Conservative Party’s biggest donors since the last election:

Lord John Sainsbury – £10.85 million

Lord John Sainsbury was chairman of the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain for 23 years from 1969 to 1992. He was knighted in 1980 and granted a life peerage in 1989.

When he died in 2022, he bequeathed a record £10.85 million to the Conservative Party, the party’s largest ever single donation.

The £10m sum adds significantly to the £2.35m Lord Sainsbury has donated since 2007, making him the party’s biggest single donor this century.

His donation went specifically to the Conservative Party Foundation, which provides bursaries to parliamentary candidates and builds long-term funding for the party.

His cousin Lord David Sainsbury is also the opposition Labor Party’s biggest donor, giving away £17.88m since 2005.

Frank Hurst – £10.17 million

Frank Hester is a businessman from Leeds, West Yorkshire, and the founder and CEO of software company The Phoenix Partnership (TPP).

Last year, Mr Hester donated a total of £5.17m to the Conservative Party through his IT company, as well as making personal donations of £5m. That made him the Conservative Party’s biggest donor during Rishi Sunak’s tenure as prime minister.

In 2023, it was discovered that Hester had made a profit of £135m from NHS contracts between 2019 and 2022 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

During these four years, Mr Hester was the sole shareholder of TTP, making him the sole recipient of more than £20 million in dividends. He appears on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £415 million.

In 2023, Mr Hester wrote an open letter to the NHS, saying: “We are here for our NHS. We are here to help. Not to generate profits for shareholders or to fuel the revolving door.”

TTP supplies software to around 2,700 GP surgeries in England and provides data services that enable medical records to be kept electronically.

write on telegraph After donating £5 million, Mr Hester said: “As a businessman from Yorkshire, I was lucky enough to meet the Prime Minister.

“He shares my passion for leveraging the data revolution to transform the way we as citizens access health care”.

Graham Edwards – £5.31m

Graham Edwards is the co-founder of real estate investment company Telereal Trillium, also known as TT Group. He became executive chairman in 2018 and has served as CEO since 2001. He has donated £5.31 million since the 2019 general election, for a total of £5.52 million, with his first donation in 2018.

Mr Edwards’ tax arrangements have come under scrutiny in the past. In 2007, a court judge blocked a complex tax avoidance scheme KPMG had set up for its clients, including Mr Edwards.

The property tycoon was found to have mistakenly tried to reduce tax on a £5m bonus he received.

A spokesman for Mr Edwards said at the time: “Mr Edwards received a bonus twenty years ago and paid full tax and National Insurance on the day he received the bonus.”

“The scheme referred to was a tax refund scheme led by KPMG but not allowed by HMRC. Mr Edwards paid all tax correctly and has never received any penalty from HMRC”.

In December 2022, Mr Edwards was appointed Conservative Party treasurer by Rishi Sunak. Nine previous holders of the position subsequently received the title.

Mohammed Mansour – £5.12m

Mohamed Mansour is an Egyptian businessman and former politician. He has led the family business Mansour Group together with his two brothers since his father’s death in 1976. The business has annual revenue of $7.5 billion.

Since 1997, the group has operated Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) Construction Equipment dealers for Africa and the Middle East. It does this through its subsidiaries Mantrac Group and Unatrac.

Mr Mansour has made numerous donations to the Conservative Party through Unatrac since 2015, totaling more than £600,000. In January 2023, he made a huge personal donation of £5 million to the Conservative Party in his own name and that of his son.

Following an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Mr Mansour’s Unatrac was found to have failed to pay $3.15 million in corporation tax between 2015 and 2018 and agreed to set aside $4 million to pay back the tax. . Unatrac had no comment.

In December 2022, Mr Mansour was appointed as the Conservative party’s senior treasurer by Mr Sunak

Mr Mansour served as transport minister from 2006 to 2009 under autocratic President Hosni Muburak, who ruled for 30 years from 1981 to 2011.

In 2010, Mr. Mansour established Man Capital, the private investment arm of the Mansour Group in London. He remains chairman, while his son Loufty Mansour serves as chief executive.

JCB and Bamford family – £3.27m

British construction equipment giant JCB is also one of the Conservative Party’s largest donors.

JCB, through the owners of the Bamford family and its subsidiaries, has donated around £11m to the Conservative Party since 2001, including £2.8m since the last general election.

The largest individual donor is chairman Lord Anthony Bamford, who has donated more than £281,000 since 2007. This includes a donation of £166,250 to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Sunday Times Rich List puts Lord Bamford and his family’s wealth at £5.9 billion.

Lord Bamford was first recommended for peerage by David Cameron in 2010. He withdrew his name that year but later joined the House of Lords in 2013.

Lord Bamford and his brother Mark are both currently under investigation by HMRC for alleged tax evasion over a two-decade period, protector To be revealed in October 2023.

The civil investigation has reportedly been ongoing for three years and involves a complex web of offshore tax havens and companies. HMRC declined to confirm or deny the reports.

The Bamfords and their legal representatives have yet to comment on the investigation.

The JCB subsidiary last donated £25,000 to the Center Conservative Party in September 2023.

Christopher Wood – £2.02 million

Professor Christopher Barry Wood has donated £2.38 million to the Conservative Party since 2014, including £2.1 million since the 2019 general election. Since February 2014, he has made 89 donations.

Professor Wood has not made any public comments about his donations to the Conservative Party. He is a founder and director of several biotechnology companies. In 2009, he founded Medannex, a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

In February 2024, the company appointed Sir Graham Brady MP as a non-executive director. The senior Conservative MP said: “I am delighted to be joining the team at this young and exciting life sciences company.

“Medannex has been awarded for its pioneering work in areas of unmet medical need and I look forward to being an active participant in its continued progress. The UK is looking to companies like Medannex to drive the next phase of our country’s development.”

Professor Wood added: “It is a great pleasure to welcome Sir Graham to the Medannex Board. He adds a new and important dimension to the company’s development of new treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

Richard Halpin – £2.005 million

Richard Harpin is the founder and CEO of Homeserve, a multinational home repair company based in the United Kingdom. Originally from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, he now lives in Sisters Monkton.

Mr Harpin has donated £2.74m to the Conservative Party since 2008, including a further £2m since the 2019 general election. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, he ranked 254th on the 2023 British Rich List, with a net worth of £630 million.

In 2014, Mr Harpin’s company Homeserve was fined a record £30m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for “widespread failings” related to mis-selling insurance policies.

Responding to the fine, Mr Harpin said: “We have transformed the business, rebuilt and strengthened the management team, retrained staff and restructured systems and controls.”

Amit Lohia – £2m

Amit Lohia, nicknamed the “Prince of Polyester,” is the vice chairman of Singaporean textile giant Indorama Corporation. Mr. Lohia was founded by his father and grandfather in 1975 and has been part of the family business since 1995.

In March 2023, Mr Lohia donated £2 million to the Conservative Party, his first and only donation to date. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, his father, Sri Prakash Lohia, was the 33rd richest person in the UK in 2023, with a net worth of £5.846 billion.

Mr. Lohia also serves on the board of directors of sister company Indorama Ventures, which manufactures plastic resins, polyester yarns and wool products.

The company came under scrutiny last year when it was discovered that it was a majority shareholder in hygiene fabrics company Avgol, which owns a production line in Russia’s Tula region.

“Amit Lohia is a non-executive director of Indorama Ventures Ltd and made the donation in his personal capacity,” a spokesman for Mr Lohia said.

“Avgol Russia produces materials used in baby diapers and feminine hygiene products. It accounts for less than 0.19% of Indorama Venture’s business.”

Malcolm Healy – £1.9m

Malcolm Healey is a billionaire and owner of Wren Kitchens. He has run the kitchen retailer since he founded it in 2009.

He has donated £2.15 million to the Conservative Party since the 2019 general election, taking his total to £4.17 million since his first donation in 2017. The 2023 Sunday Times Rich List puts Mr Healy and his family’s net worth at £2.5 billion.

At the end of 2021, independent It has been revealed that Mr Healey’s company Wren Kitchens claimed millions of dollars in furlough payments during the coronavirus pandemic despite making profits of £75.3m.

Labor MP Rushanara Ali said it was not illegal independent : “This goes against the whole spirit of the furlough scheme.”

“At a time when millions of people are still struggling to make ends meet, it’s unfair and unfair that companies owned by billionaire conservative donors are taking taxpayer dollars to pay their employees when businesses don’t need them. unethical.”

Neither Mr Healy nor Wren Kitchen responded. The Independent Request for comment.

Alan Howard – £1.58 million

Alan Eldan Howard is a billionaire British hedge fund manager and co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP. In 2019, he resigned as CEO of the company but retained overall control.

Mr Howard’s annual salary from Brevan Howard in 2023 is £82 million. Howard ranks 100th among Britain’s richest people, worth £1.75 billion in 2023, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

He has donated £1.8m to the Conservative Party since 2005 and £1.5m in just over four years since the 2019 general election.