Liz Truss's biggest campaign donor revealed as wife of Scottish-born millionaire

Liz Truss's campaign received 22 individual donations during the Tory leadership election

LIZ Truss’s biggest single Tory leadership campaign donation came from the wife of a Scottish Dubai-based entrepreneur.

Fitriani Hay, the wife of millionaire former BP executive James Hay, gave the new Prime Minister a huge £100,000 in her bid to take over from Boris Johnson.

The couple has donated more than £1 million to the Tory party in recent years and purchased Birch Grove, the former home of Tory PM Harold MacMillan in 2011. Hay, who worked at BP for 27 years, was born in Glasgow and studied at Strathclyde University. He is reportedly worth £325 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. 

Overall, Truss raised just shy of £425,000. Her competitor Rishi Sunak meanwhile raised almost £460,000 in total.

The extent of the donations emerged in both MPs register of interests just days after Truss was appointed PM by the Queen at Balmoral.

Who were Truss’s donors for the Tory leadership campaign?

In total, the former foreign secretary was funded by 22 separate donations during her campaign. Aside from Hay, Truss’s next biggest backer was Natasha Barnaba, who gave the now PM two £50,000 donations in the space of two days.

She is listed on Companies House as an interior designer and is married to investment banker and French football club chairman Alessandro Barnaba.

Howard Shore, chairman of the Shore Capital Group, an investment firm based in Guernsey, was Truss’s third biggest backer and gave Truss £50,000.

Michael Spencer, a billionaire and frequent Tory party donor, put £25,000 towards the campaign, while Jon Moynihan, one of Johnson’s backers, donated £20,000.

Fitriani Hay, who gave Truss's campaign her biggest single donation, with her husband James

Grolar Developments Ltd, a Manchester-based real estate firm, and SJJ Contracts Ltd, a Cheshire-based construction company, both gave Truss’s campaign £15,000, while six individuals handed over £10,000 each.

Gary Mond, who quit his role on the Board of Deputies of British Jews ahead of an investigation into alleged historic Islamophobic posts, and Brexit Party MEP Lance Forman, who gave the cash under the name "Smoked Salmon", were two of those donors.

Forman was also close to Johnson and was one of four Brexit Party MPs who defected to the Tories during the 2019 General Election campaign.

Others included Phillip Jeans, Gordon Phillips, Linda Edwards, understood to be on the board of the International Energy Agency (IEA) who previously gave Truss’s constituency party £20,000, and Barbara Yerolemou.

Yerolemou and her husband Tony, co-founder of Katsouris Fresh Foods, donated 31 times to the Tory party between March 2001 and March 2010, totalling £371,120.

There were also eight further donations which were less than £10,000.

Tony Gallagher, a billionaire land and property developer who has given more than £4.3m to the Tories in recent years and was given a knighthood under Johnson, gave Truss £5500.

JC Bamford, another big Johnson backer, paid £5316, while three individuals, Clara Freeman, former director of Marks and Spencers, Alison Frost and Baroness Sheila Noakes, gave £5000.

Lord Greville Howard of Rising, who allowed Truss to use a Westminster townhouse he owns as her campaign HQ, also gave her £4356. Howard was educated at Eton, is a hereditary eer, and served as private secretary to Enoch Powell from 1968 to 1970.

The smallest donation came from Tungsten West PLC, operators of a mining venture in Devon which was paused after spiralling energy prices and inflation impacted the project, who donated £4050.

What about the other Tory leadership contenders and Rishi Sunak?

While Truss's campaign one, Sunak's raised the most money

Truss raised £424,349, while Sunak received £458,570.

Tory HQ set the spending limit for the contest at £300,000 – with both final candidates taking in more donations than they were allowed to spend. 

The former chancellor was given £50,000 from property investor Nick Leslau’s firm Yoginvest, £10,000 from telecoms entrepreneur Charles Wigoder and £5000 from hedge fund manager Hardy McLain.

Out of the other candidates who didn’t make it to the final two, Tom Tugendhat raised the most funds and brought in £128,000.

Penny Mordaunt raised £84,000, while Kemi Badenoch was given £13,000 and newly appointed Home Secretary Suella Braverman only received £12,000 in donations.

In the 2019 Tory leadership election Johnson raised £415,000, while Hunt only brought in £186,000.