A claim which has repeatedly been reported about the businesswoman Amanda Staveley that her London home was used as the headquarters for Theresa May’s Conservative party leadership campaign has been denied on behalf of the prime minister.
This claim has been prominently reported in national newspapers, including following interviews with Staveley, who is bidding to buy Newcastle United, since 13 July 2016, the day after May won her bid to become party leader. The Daily Mail reported then that Staveley, described as “City glamourpuss” and “the well-connected dealmaker”, “generously provided her spacious Mayfair offices for the new PM to base her successful leadership campaign”.
In August 2016 the Mail on Sunday, in the context of an interview with Staveley which described her as “Britain’s best-connected financier”, reported that: “During the leadership bid for the Tory party, Staveley’s luxurious Park Lane home-cum-office was made available as May’s campaign headquarters.”
More recently, as Staveley has attracted renewed national media coverage with her publicly stated interest in buying Newcastle United from the Sports Direct owner, Mike Ashley, the claim has been reported again, as supporting evidence of Staveley’s credibility as a substantial financier with connections at the highest levels.
A Conservative party spokesman, however, told the Guardian that while “a very small number of conversations took place in Amanda Staveley’s home the campaign was not based there”.
May’s leadership campaign was in fact based in offices at 10 Greycoat Place in Westminster he said. There is no donation of office space from Staveley declared in May’s MP register of interests.
“The prime minister’s leadership campaign was based in office space that was paid for and declared in the usual way,” the spokesman said.
Staveley’s representative, asked about this discrepancy, pointed out that none of the reports in the newspaper articles were in quotes from Staveley. He said neither Staveley nor he had ever told the media that her home office had been used as May’s campaign headquarters. Asked how the claim had come to be reported following interviews with Staveley, her representative said he did not know.
