A hotels tycoon and disillusioned Conservative donor who vowed not to contribute to the party again has bolstered the Tory coffers in a move designed to support the arch-Brexiter Steve Baker.
Sir Rocco Forte, the Brexit-backing hotelier who helped to fund Boris Johnson’s election win and hosted a £12,000 leadership victory party for him, had distanced himself from the party and repeatedly expressed frustration over its handling of Brexit.
However, newly released Electoral Commission data shows Forte handed £10,000 to the Conservatives through their Wycombe branch this year, marking his first donation to the party since 2019 when he gave £100,000 on the eve of Johnson’s election victory.
It is understood Forte specifically made the donation to support Baker, the MP for Wycombe, who was one of the Tories’ fiercest campaigners to get the UK out of the EU. However, Baker, now a Northern Ireland minister, last year apologised to Ireland and Brussels for the way he and some of his colleagues had behaved since the Brexit vote.
Asked why Forte had performed an apparent U-turn to support the MP, his spokesperson said: “He will continue to contribute to support individual Conservatives with the sorts of views he wants to see.”
Earlier this year, Forte said he would not give the Tories further funds as there was “no point”. He said: “What’s the point of having a Conservative government which is following policies which have been followed for the last 15 years and haven’t delivered good growth?
“We have a sort of social democratic government in parliament. We don’t have a Conservative government and there’s no one who really believes in driving the economy and changing the system to do that.”
Another high-profile businessman, Michael Spencer, has also resumed donations to the Conservatives after a two-year hiatus, with a £5,000 donation. Lord Spencer declined to comment.
The billionaire founder of the broking firm Icap and an ex-Tory party treasurer, now chair of the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies thinktank, joined the House of Lords in 2020 after being nominated by Johnson. He has donated about £5m in total to the Conservatives.
The party also received the backing of Sisu Capital, the former owner of Coventry City football club, which is controlled by Joy Seppala. It gave the party £25,000 over the last quarter.
The donations data, released last week, showed that Labour had a record quarter for funding, receiving more than £10.4m. It was boosted by £3m from David Sainsbury, the supermarket baron.
The Conservatives received £10m during the quarter, including a £5m donation from Frank Hester, the founder and chief executive of the Phoenix Partnership, a healthcare software company.
Both parties’ finances are under scrutiny in the run-up to the next general election.
