The single biggest donation to Liz Truss’s successful campaign for the Conservative leadership came from the wife of a former BP executive.
It emerged that Fitriani Hay, the wife of James Hay, donated 100,000 to Ms Truss’s campaign as the new prime minister set out her plan to help families struggling with their energy bills.
Ms Truss said she would cap annual household bills at £2,500, paid for by additional government borrowing, rejecting Labour leader Keir Starmer’s call to extend the windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas giants.
James Hay joined BP as an engineer in the 1970s and spent nearly three decades working for the multinational firm, where he later became a senior executive.
Now the chairman of JMH Group, the Dubai-based business operating in luxury goods, Mr Hay is worth £325m according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Some major Tory donors helped Ms Truss raise more than £424,000 for her leadership challenge, according to the register of members’ interests.
She got support from some of Boris Johnson’s key financial backers – including JCB chairman Lord Bamford, private investor Howard Shore and Brexiteer businessman Jon Moynihan.
Lord Bamford covered transport costs worth £5,316, while Mr Shore donated £50,000 and Mr Moynihan £20,000.
Other donors to Ms Truss’s campaign include Lance Anisfeld, also known as Lance Forman, a former Brexit Party MEP who donated £10,000 through his company, Smoked Salmon. Mr Anisfeld in 2018 claimed climate change is a “myth”.
Ms Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak raised £446,765 towards his leadership campaign, only slightly more than his rival. His single largest donor was Chris Rea, a Northern Irish businessman, who gave £100,000.
Other significant donors included millionaire property developer Nick Leslau, whose company Yoginvest donated £50,000, and Tory peer Lord Farmer, who donated £15,000 in cash and another £23,470 in the form of a private plane.
Meanwhile, opposition parties repeated their called for an additional windfall tax on oil and gas giants, a policy which is widely popular among voters and has been introduced in several countries across Europe.
Ms Truss has said that extending the windfall levy would deter investment, something Mr Sunak said before later going ahead with the policy.
Setting out her plan in the Commons on Thursday, Ms Truss confirmed energy bills for the average household will be frozen at no more than £2,500 until October 2024.
The government has given no details yet on the cost to the public finances – set to come in chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal statement later this month – although the two-year plan is estimated to cost in the region of £150bn.
For businesses and other non-domestic users such as schools and hospitals, which have not been covered by the existing price cap, a six-month scheme will offer equivalent support.
Ms Truss told MPs: “This is the moment to be bold. We are facing a global energy crisis and there are no cost-free options.”
