The Tories have been hit by a fresh cash-for-access row over a secret “advisory board” of multimillionaire donors.
Members who each pumped at least £250,000 into the party war chest were granted audiences with ministers and senior No10 advisers at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Sunday Times.
It said that about a dozen of the most generous donors were invited to regular meetings with Boris Johnson's top team.
The moneyed elite were able to quiz advisers and ministers on government policy - and even pressed for lockdown restrictions to be eased early and for lower taxes on the super-rich, the paper said.
More than a dozen people were routinely invited to advisory board meetings, it added.
At least four are said to be billionaires and six have appeared on The Sunday Times Rich List. In total, the combined wealth of the board members, their companies and their families was more than £30billion, the paper said.
They have pumped £22million into the Conservatives’ war chest, including £9.9m donated since Mr Johnson became leader in July 2019, according to the report.
The club donors were said to include property tycoons.
A source told the paper: "It was implied that what we said would go straight up to the PM.
"It was a two-way street. They gave us information on what was going on. We gave our advice."
One of the PM’s then closest aides, chief strategy adviser Sir Eddie Lister - now Lord Udny-Lister, a Conservative peer who sits in the House of Lords - admitted he went to meetings.
"I attended the advisory board when asked,” he told the Sunday Times.
"I attended as the PM adviser and speaking to the party was something I did and with parliamentarians.
“I was in Downing Street nearly every day throughout the pandemic."
One of the meetings allegedly took place on May 15, 2020 - the same day the now-infamous picture of Mr Johnson and aides eating cheese and drinking wine in the Downing Street garden was taken.
Party chairman Ben Elliot, who is Prince Charles's nephew, also took part in virtual meetings of the advisory board, it was said.
His role has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks.
Last month, he was forced to deny raising money from members of his luxury concierge company, Quintessentially, in his role as Conservative Party chairman.
Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said of the latest claims: "These revelations raise serious national security questions about the cash-for-access culture that Boris Johnson has created at the heart of government.”
She called on the Prime Minister to “explain what donors” received “in return for their six-figure annual membership fee and clarify whether these meetings had any impact on government policy at the height of the pandemic”.
A Conservative spokesman said: "We can confirm that, on occasion, senior Conservative politicians, just like senior Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians, do in fact attempt to raise funds for the party they represent."
