Sir Mohamed Mansour: Who are the Conservative party’s biggest donors?

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Tory senior treasurer Mohamed Mansour, who was appointed to the function after donating £5m to the get together, has been awarded a knighthood on the suggestion of Rishi Sunak.

Mr Mansour, a businessman and former Egyptian politician, has made quite a lot of charitable donations over the years, together with to causes which raised cash for Covid-19 victims in the UK. No 10 have pointed to this in reply to issues round his knighthood.

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds mentioned: “This is either the arrogant act of an entitled man who’s stopped caring what the public thinks, or the demob-happy self-indulgence of someone who doesn’t expect to be prime minister much longer.”

It comes after the Conservative Party turned embroiled in a political row because it was alleged prime donor Frank Hester made racist feedback about MP Diane Abbott to colleagues.

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

Mr Hester has remodeled £10 million in donations to the Conservatives over the previous two years, making him the biggest donor of Rishi Sunak’s premiership. Mr Mansour is the third highest donor.

Here are the biggest donors to the Tories since the final basic election:

Lord John Sainsbury – £10.85m

Lord John Sainsbury was chair of the Sainsbury’s grocery store chain for 23 years, from 1969 to 1992. He was knighted in 1980, and made a life peer in 1989.

When he died in 2022, he bequeathed a report £10.85m donation to the Conservatives – the largest single donation ever given to the get together.

This £10m sum considerably added to the £2.35m Lord Sainsbury had donated since 2007, making him the biggest single donor to the get together this century.

His donation went particularly to the Conservative Party Foundation, which funds bursaries for parliamentary candidates and builds long-term funding for the get together.

His cousin, Lord David Sainsbury has additionally been the biggest donor to the opposition Labour Party, donating £17.88m since 2005.

Frank Hester – £10.17m

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

Last yr, Mr Hester made donations to the Tories totalling £5.17m via his IT firm, in addition to a £5m private donation. This makes him the biggest donor to the Conservatives throughout Rishi Sunak’s premiership.

In 2023, it was discovered that Mr Hester had profited from £135m of NHS contracts between 2019 and 2022, all through the peak of the Covid pandemic.

During these 4 years, Mr Hester was the solely shareholder of TTP, making him the sole recipient of over £20m in dividends. He appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated wealth of £415m.

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 drive profits for shareholders, or to grease revolving doors.”

TTP provides software program to round 2,700 GP surgical procedures in England in addition to offering information providers that allow medical data to be held electronically.

Writing in The Telegraph after making his £5m donation, Mr Hester mentioned: “As a businessman from Yorkshire I have been fortunate enough to have met the prime minister.

“He shares my passion for harnessing the data revolution to transform the way we as citizens access healthcare”.

Graham Edwards – £5.31m

Graham Edwards is co-founder of property funding firm Telereal Trillium, or TT Group. He turned Executive Chairman in 2018, having been Chief Executive since 2001. He has donated £5.31m since the 2019 basic election and £5.52m total, first donating in 2018.

Mr Edwards’ tax preparations have come underneath scrutiny in the previous. In 2007, a tribunal decide blocked a fancy tax avoidance scheme arrange by KPMG for his or her shoppers, together with Mr Edwards.

The property tycoon was discovered to have wrongly tried to cut back the tax on £5m he acquired in bonuses.

A spokesman for Mr Edwards mentioned at the time: “Two decades ago Mr Edwards received a bonus and paid full tax and National Insurance on it, on the day he received it,”

“The scheme mentioned was a KPMG-led tax reclaim scheme that HMRC disallowed. Mr Edwards paid all taxes properly and never received any penalty from HMRC”.

In December 2022, Mr Edwards was appointed Conservative Party treasurer by Rishi Sunak. Nine earlier holders of this function have gone on to obtain peerages.

Mohamed Mansour – £5.12m

Mohamed Mansour is an Egyptian businessman and former politician. He has led the Mansour Group household enterprise alongside his two brothers since the demise of his father in 1976. It experiences an annual income of $7.5bn.

Since 1997, the group has run the Africa and Middle East dealership of the Caterpiller Inc (CAT) building gear firm. It does this via subsiduary corporations Mantrac Group and Unatrac.

It is thru Unatrac that Mr Mansour has made a number of donations to the Conservatives totalling over £600,000 since 2015. In January 2023, he made a considerable private donation of £5m to the get together in his and his son’s title.

After being investigated by the HMRC, Mr Mansour’s Unatrac agreed to put aside $4m for backdated tax after being discovered to owe $3.15m in unpaid company tax between 2015 and 2018. Unatrac gave no feedback.

In December 2022, Mr Mansour was appointed senior treasurer of the Conservatives by Mr Sunak

From 2006 to 2009, Mr Mansour was Egypt’s minister of transport underneath autocratic president Hosni Muburak, who dominated for 3 many years from 1981 to 2011.

In 2010, Mr Mansour arrange Man Capital, the Mansour Group’s personal funding subsidiary, based mostly in London. He stays chairman whereas his son, Loufty Mansour, is the CEO.

JCB and the Bamford household – £3.27m

British building gear large JCB can also be amongst the Conservative Party’s largest donors.

Through house owners the Bamford household and the corporations’ subsidiaries, JCB has gifted the Tories round £11m since 2001, together with £2.8m since the final basic election.

The largest particular person donor is chairman Lord Anthony Bamford, giving over £281,000 since 2007. This consists of £166,250 in donations to former prime minister Boris Johnson. The Sunday Times Rich List places Lord Bamford and his household’s wealth at £5.9bn.

Lord Bamford was first really helpful for a peerage by David Cameron in 2010. He withdrew his title that yr, however then joined the House of Lords later, in 2013.

Lord Bamford and his brother Mark are each at present underneath investigation by the HMRC for allegations of avoiding UK tax over a interval of twenty years, The Guardian revealed in October 2023.

The reported civil investigation has been underway for 3 years, and spans a fancy community of offshore tax havens and corporations. The HMRC has refused to verify or deny the experiences.

Neither the Bamfords nor a authorized consultant for both of them has commented on the investigation but.

The final donation from a JCB subsidiary to the central Conservative get together was £25,000, made in September 2023.

Christopher Wood – £2.02m

Professor Christopher Barry Wood has donated £2.38m to the Conservatives since 2014, together with £2.1m since the 2019 basic election. He has made 89 donations since February 2014.

Prof Wood has not made any public feedback about his donations to the Conservative Party. He is a founder and director of a number of biotechnology corporations. In 2009, he based Medannex, a biopharmaceutical firm that develops most cancers and autoimmune illness therapies.

In February 2024, the firm appointed Sir Graham Brady MP as a non-executive director. The veteran Tory MP mentioned: “I am delighted to be joining the team of this young and exciting life sciences company.

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

Prof Wood added: “It’s a real pleasure to welcome Sir Graham to the board of directors of Medannex. He adds a new and important dimension to the company in its quest to develop new treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

Richard Harpin – £2.005m

Richard Harpin is the founder and CEO of Homeserve, a multinational UK-based residence repairs enterprise. He is initially from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, now residing in Nun Monkton.

Mr Harpin has donated £2.74m to the Tories since 2008, with £2m coming since the 2019 basic election. He was the UK’s 254th richest individual in 2023 in keeping with the Sunday Times Rich List, with a price of £630m.

In 2014, Mr Harpin’s firm Homeserve was fined a report £30m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for ‘widespread failings’ associated to misselling insurance coverage insurance policies.

Responding to the wonderful, Mr Harpin mentioned: “We have transformed the business, rebuilding and strengthening the management team, retraining staff and restructuring systems and controls.”

Amit Lohia – £2.00m

Nicknamed ‘The Prince of Polyester,’ Amit Lohia is the vice-chairman of Singapore-based textile large Indorama Corporation. Founded by his father and grandfather in 1975, Mr Lohia has been a part of his household’s enterprise since 1995.

In March 2023, Mr Lohia made a £2m donation to the Conservative get together, his first and solely thus far. His father Sri Prakash Lohia was the UK’s thirty third richest individual in 2023, in keeping with The Sunday Times Rich List, with a price of £5.846bn.

Mr Lohia additionally sits on the board of sister firm Indorama Ventures, which manufactures plastic resins, polyester yarn and wool merchandise.

The enterprise got here underneath scrutiny final yr when it was discovered to be a majority shareholder in hygiene materials agency Avgol, which has a manufacturing line in Russia’s Tula Oblast area.

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

“Avgol Russia makes materials used in babies’ nappies and feminine hygiene products. It represents less than 0.19% of Indorama Venture’s operations”.

Malcolm Healey – £1.90m

Malcolm Healey is a billionaire businessman, and proprietor of Wren Kitchens. He has run the fitted kitchen retailer since founding it in 2009.

He has donated £2.15m to the Tories since the 2019 basic election, and £4.17m total since his first donation in 2017. The 2023 Sunday Times Rich List places Mr Healey and his household’s web price at £2.5bn.

In late 2021, The Independent revealed that Mr Healey’s firm Wren Kitchens claimed thousands and thousands in furlough cash throughout the Covid pandemic – regardless of recording a £75.3m revenue.

This was not illegal, however Labour MP Rushanara Ali advised The Independent : “This goes against the whole spirit of the furlough scheme.”

“It is unjust and immoral for a billionaire Tory donor’s firm to take taxpayers’ money to pay staff when their business is not in need, at a time when millions were struggling and continue to struggle to make ends meet.”

Neither Mr Healey nor Wren Kitchens responded to The Independent’s requests for remark.

Alan Howard – £1.58m

Alan Eldan Howard is a billionaire British hedge fund supervisor and co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP. In 2019, he stepped down as the agency’s chief govt, however retains total management.

Mr Howard’s annual pay from Brevan Howard was £82m in 2023. He is the UK’s one hundredth richest man in keeping with the Sunday Times Rich List, with a price of £1.75bn in 2023.

He has donated £1.8m to the Conservative get together since 2005, £1.5m coming in simply over 4 years, since the 2019 basic election.