WEALTHY donors including climate change sceptics, property moguls and Tory insiders have donated thousands to leadership candidates, according to new filings which are said to expose the party as "rotten to the core".
Liz Truss, widely seen as the frontrunner in the race to become the next prime minister, has yet to reveal the source of her campaign spending while rival Rishi Sunak has declared only the use of office space gifted to his camp.
Truss has provided no updates to the MPs’ register of interests, which covers the period up to August 8.
Sunak received the use of office space in Westminster for two weeks in July worth £3,195 from Bridge Consulting Ltd.
The firm was co-founded by Tory party marketing boss Will Harris, who oversaw the Conservative’s advertising strategy from 2003 to 2004.
Tom Tugendhat raised more than £120,000 to fund his unsuccessful bid for the Conservative leadership, the updated register shows. This is the highest figure so far released.
Some £42,673 came from a company called Policy Focus Ltd, founded on June 27, less than two weeks before the leadership campaign began.
Companies House records show Policy Focus is owned by property developers Christian Sweeting and Robert Luck. Sweeting previously donated £10,000 to the Conservative Party in 2018.
Tugendhat also received £50,000 from long-time Tory donor Ian Mukherjee and £25,000 from Beacon Rock Ltd, owned by former Conservative Party treasurer Michael Davis.
Another £6,000 came from business consultancy InvestUK Group.
Attorney General Suella Braverman was gifted £10,000 from a company owned by a climate change sceptic and a former Boris Johnson backer who was also one of the most generous donors to the Brexit campaign.
Terence Mordaunt – not thought to be related to unsuccessful leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt – owns Bristol Port and First Corporate Consultants Ltd, which gifted the cash to Braverman's unsuccessful campaign.
He chaired the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) between 2019 and 2021 – a think tank which believes climate change policies “may be doing more harm than good”.
Mordaunt was quoted in a 2019 interview with OpenDemocracy as saying: “No one has proved yet that CO2 is the culprit (of climate change). It may not be. If you ask me should we just put CO2 in the air I would say ‘no’.”
Pete Wishart, SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, said the revalation would "come as no surprise to anyone".
He added: "The Conservative Party is rotten to the core – in government it has handed out billions of pounds worth of taxpayers’ cash in contracts to pals, cronies and donors.
"It is clear that whoever wins the Tory leadership in this toxic race to the right, Scotland will be forced to endure more austerity-driven politics."
Braverman was also given a £2,000 discount on “digital services” for her leadership campaign from consultant Ethan Wilkinson, who failed to become a Conservative councillor in Milton Keynes earlier this year.
I am standing to be your @MKConservatives candidate in Loughton and Shenley this May 🙏 I live in Loughton with my wife and four children. This is my home ❤️ pic.twitter.com/GbGOG69VwQ
— Ethan Wilkinson (@ethanrwilkinson) January 7, 2022
Kemi Badenoch raised £12,500 to support her failed bid for the Tory leadership - £10,000 from Longrow Capital, owned by tech investor Dave Maclean.
She also received £2,500 from Joanne Black, for whom no further details are available.
Former Conservative leadership hopefuls Penny Mordaunt, Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi are yet to declare any financial support for their campaigns.
MPs have 28 days from accepting a donation to declare it to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
