A Conservative donor has said the party does not deserve to win the next election, weeks after he donated £5,000 to Labour.
Lord Harris of Peckham, known for his Harris academy schools, said he had lost faith in the party given what it had done over the past three years.
“You can’t think of many good things that the Conservatives have done and stuck to,” the Tory peer told the Telegraph.
“At the last election, they said they were going to open 40 new hospitals in the next five years. Where are they? The whole situation in politics at the moment is very damaging to the UK.”
In August, Harris gave £5,000 to the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who attended a school that later became one of the Harris academies.
The Carpetright founder and ally of Margaret Thatcher said he would not be defecting to Labour, but that he had urged the Conservatives to “adopt a clear vision and stick to it”.
His criticism comes days before the Conservative party conference, with members, MPs and peers keen to learn of Rishi Sunak’s vision for the country.
Harris revealed he had donated cash to Labour MPs on “four or five occasions”. While he did not intend to back Labour at the ballot box, he stressed the government could not carry on “changing people every five minutes”.
“If I were a Labour voter, which I am not, it wouldn’t be hard to beat the Conservatives after what’s happened in the last three years. The only thing is, will Labour do any better?”
He said the state of Britain’s health service was worrying: “You shouldn’t have to wait 18 months [for treatment] when for 40-50 years of your life you have paid in money and then you can’t use it.
“As the country is today, I want the best party to win the next general election, one that’s going to look after the British people.”
Harris said no prime minister since Thatcher had rivalled her ability, but “the next best were Tony Blair and [John] Major”.
“[Reeves] went to one of our schools in Beckenham,” he said. “And she goes back without me knowing and talks to the children. She’s never asked me for any money but I decided to send her £5,000.
“I have not spoken to her about this at all. I have only ever met her once over a cup of tea about a year and a half ago. As shadow chancellor, I can listen to her and see where she’s coming from. I am 95% Conservative but there are some good Labour people.”
Harris’s comments come days after John Caudwell, the biggest donor to the Conservative party before the last election, said he would not back Rishi Sunak after the “madness” of his U-turn on green policies.
Caudwell said he was thinking about switching to Labour instead.
The billionaire Phones 4u founder told the Sunday Times: “If Rishi sticks to this, would I donate to the Conservative party? Absolutely not. No chance whatsoever with the decisions they are making at the moment.
“Would I switch to Labour? The answer to that is very simple: I will support any party that I believe will do the right thing for Britain going forward.”
Before the 2019 election, Caudwell donated £500,000 to the Tories.
• This article was amended on 29 September 2023. Although it was true that Rachel Reeves went to Cator Park School for Girls, it did not become an academy until 2011, after she had left. This has been corrected.
