Sunday, March 10, 2024
Helicopters R Us
According to the Mirror, Rishi Sunak's obsession with helicopters has paid off for the Tory Party.
The paper reports that the Rishi took a £10k helicopter ride to a supermarket tycoon's back garden to rattle his tin and came away with a £250k donation:
And figures just released by the Electoral Commission reveal how lucrative Mr Sunak's trip was.
Mr Arora donated £250,000 to the Conservative Party in December - one of the party's biggest single donations of the year.
It's Bobby Arora's first political donation, according to the Commission's records - though his brother Simon has previously given £50,000 to the Tories.
The £10,000 cost of the helicopter ride was covered by another tycoon - Ferrari driving businessman Steve Parkin.
In total, the Tories were handed around £48million in cash donations and public funds in 2023.
The party had recorded an overall loss in 2022 amid a year of political turmoil which saw three different prime ministers enter Number 10.
Including donations to both the central party and local branches as well as all payments from trade unions, companies, individuals and public funds, Labour received around £31 million across 2023.
But despite being behind the Tories overall, it was Labour’s biggest ever year in donations from individuals and companies - who gave more than £13 million in total.
The Conservatives trousered £10million in donations from health tech tycoon Frank Hester and his firm the Phoenix Partnership (Leeds).
And two Tory MPs donated their own cash to the party in a desperate bid to get re-elected. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt handed his local party £18,084 in November - taking the total he's donated since the last election to £123,345.
And John Penrose gave £10,000 to his Weston Super Mare constituency. Polls show both seats are under threat at the next election.
Labour's biggest backer overall was former Autoglass boss Gary Lubner, who gave £4.5million, while the largest single donation of £3million was provided by Lord David Sainsbury, the long-standing Labour supporter.
Lord Sainsbury was a major donor when the party was last in power, serving as a minister in Tony Blair's government.
My first reaction to this is that I will not be stepping foot in a B&M for sometime, if ever again. However, the real questions have to be what do all these donors expect to get for their money? And why do we have a system that allows people to buy influence in this way?
If you're poor and existing on benefits, the chances of you sitting down to dinner with a cabinet minister to put your case range from negligible to zero, but if you donate money then that is not a problem. Surely it is time for some serious reform.
The paper reports that the Rishi took a £10k helicopter ride to a supermarket tycoon's back garden to rattle his tin and came away with a £250k donation:
And figures just released by the Electoral Commission reveal how lucrative Mr Sunak's trip was.
Mr Arora donated £250,000 to the Conservative Party in December - one of the party's biggest single donations of the year.
It's Bobby Arora's first political donation, according to the Commission's records - though his brother Simon has previously given £50,000 to the Tories.
The £10,000 cost of the helicopter ride was covered by another tycoon - Ferrari driving businessman Steve Parkin.
In total, the Tories were handed around £48million in cash donations and public funds in 2023.
The party had recorded an overall loss in 2022 amid a year of political turmoil which saw three different prime ministers enter Number 10.
Including donations to both the central party and local branches as well as all payments from trade unions, companies, individuals and public funds, Labour received around £31 million across 2023.
But despite being behind the Tories overall, it was Labour’s biggest ever year in donations from individuals and companies - who gave more than £13 million in total.
The Conservatives trousered £10million in donations from health tech tycoon Frank Hester and his firm the Phoenix Partnership (Leeds).
And two Tory MPs donated their own cash to the party in a desperate bid to get re-elected. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt handed his local party £18,084 in November - taking the total he's donated since the last election to £123,345.
And John Penrose gave £10,000 to his Weston Super Mare constituency. Polls show both seats are under threat at the next election.
Labour's biggest backer overall was former Autoglass boss Gary Lubner, who gave £4.5million, while the largest single donation of £3million was provided by Lord David Sainsbury, the long-standing Labour supporter.
Lord Sainsbury was a major donor when the party was last in power, serving as a minister in Tony Blair's government.
My first reaction to this is that I will not be stepping foot in a B&M for sometime, if ever again. However, the real questions have to be what do all these donors expect to get for their money? And why do we have a system that allows people to buy influence in this way?
If you're poor and existing on benefits, the chances of you sitting down to dinner with a cabinet minister to put your case range from negligible to zero, but if you donate money then that is not a problem. Surely it is time for some serious reform.
