Cash for honours rides again: raised eyebrows as party donors appear in the list | Political Concern

Last Updated: June 14, 2015By

Jim Pickard, Chief Political Correspondent for the FT, opens his June 12th article by noting that a ‘clutch of Conservative party donors have been recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours, including Mick Davis, former chief of the mining group Xstrata, who has been knighted for services to the prime minister’s Holocaust Commission’. Pickard reports that Sir Mick has given £1.47m to the Conservatives and donated to Kew Gardens and the Royal Opera House. Points made:

  • In 2011 Davis was named in a Cabinet report as one of six businessmen funding Adam Werrity, an unofficial adviser to Liam Fox when he was defence secretary. Mr Fox was later forced to resign amid questions about his relationship with Mr Werritty.
  • Other benefactors in the honours list include Henry Angest, a former party treasurer, who has been given a knighthood for his political service.
  • Pickard recalls: “Mr Angest gave the Tories a £5m overdraft facility just before the 2010 general election through Arbuthnot Latham, a private bank in which he owns a majority stake. He has also given £1.9m to the party in his name and through his companies, Arbuthnot Banking Group and Flowidea, according to Electoral Commission data”.
  • Rory Brooks, head of the private equity firm MML Capital, who has given the party £300,311, received a CBE for charitable services – £1.4m to the Brooks World Poverty Institute at Manchester University.
  • Jeremy Isaacs, former Europe chief executive of Lehman Brothers, who has given the Conservative party £416,500 and runs the private equity firm JRJ Group, was given a CBE for his service as chair of the remuneration committee at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Despite the ongoing cash for honours concern about the impact on democracy and decision-making in the public rather than corporate interest, in 2007, all concerned were reassured by a Crown Prosecution Service assessment quoted on a BBC website, that “For a case to proceed, the prosecution must have a realistic prospect of being able to prove that the two people agreed that the gift, etc., was in exchange for an honour,” and that “There is no direct evidence of any such agreement between any two people subject of this investigation”.

Would you buy a used car from these people?

Source: Cash for honours rides again: raised eyebrows as party donors appear in the list | Political Concern

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7 Comments

  1. Mr.Angry June 14, 2015 at 9:57 am - Reply

    And on it goes!!

  2. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) June 14, 2015 at 11:22 am - Reply

    These Birthday Honours are nothing more than a farce! They are incorrectly used when rewarding financial matters of any sort; absolutely disgraceful! They should only be used for those who do some very good action for the benefit of mankind and definitely not for the benefit of profit making or political gain.

  3. NMac June 14, 2015 at 3:35 pm - Reply

    Its just a big corrupt joke.

  4. Mary June 14, 2015 at 6:06 pm - Reply

    Corruption! Corruption! Corruption comes to mind.

  5. crazytrucker1951 June 14, 2015 at 7:24 pm - Reply

    They all do it just that the Tories do it so flagrantly! It goes back to Lloyd-George and beyond, sickening.

    • Andy June 15, 2015 at 8:02 am - Reply

      Very true….do you remember Lord “Gannex” Kagan and Harold Wılson.
      I tend to ignore what I call the political honours and appreciate that the likes of a lollipop lady in Wales or a young woman in Newcastle who set up a fund for a disabled pensioner had been mugged or the severely handicapped girl in the Isle of Wight who sails a yacht which she steers by blowing and sucking down a tube but has raised thousands for charity by solo trıps including going round the Island, across the Channel and from the Island to London. These are what the honours are really about and which the press and media and the likes of Jim Picard should be covering.

      • crazytrucker1951 June 15, 2015 at 12:05 pm - Reply

        Yes I do remember Harold and the Lord Kagan scandal, and I do agree with the rest of your post, gongs should be given to those people who actually contribute to their communities or society as a whole not receiving a Knighthood or a Peerage because you’ve spent your whole worthless life kissing the right bottoms, or being rewarded for doing a lousy job which seems to be the way of things these days for those at the top of the dung heap whilst those at the bottom would be given their P45’s for doing a similar lousy job.

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