Anyone who wants access to a Tory politician can pay to go to a Tory fundraiser, a minister has declared.
Nadhim Zahawi made the frank admission in a bizarre bid to defend his party in a row about access to the highest levels of government.
The Business Minister was asked by the BBC why 'Red Wall' Tory voters in Doncaster or Ashfield don’t have the same access as billionaire Richard Desmond.
He replied: "If people go to a fundraiser in their local area in Doncaster for the Conservative Party they’d be sitting next to MPs and other people in their local authority, and can interact with different parts of the authority."
The Tories have never made any secret of the fact people can buy access to the party - but it is rare to have such a frank statement saying so.
By donating £50,000, donors can join the Leaders' Group to dine in private with the PM and senior ministers. The party has always insisted there is no undue influence.
Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: "It is scandalous to suggest that the most appropriate way for the public to lobby Conservative MPs is to pour money into Tory party coffers.
"Members of Parliament are there to serve all their constituents, not just those who can write them big cheques.
"The Prime Minister now must show leadership. He must sack Robert Jenrick."
It comes as Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick faces questions over his decision to approve a £1bn housing development in London against the advice of a planning inspector.
He gave Westferry Printworks, planned by billionaire Tory donor Richard Desmond, the green light on January 14 - hours before a council levy kicked in that would have cost the developer around £40m.
It's since emerged Mr Desmond showed the minister a video of the scheme on his phone at a Tory fundraising dinner in November, and texted him asking him to approve it before the deadline.
On November 20, Mr Desmond told him "we don't want to give Marxists" in Tower Hamlets council "loads of doe for nothing."
In an e-mail dated January 9, a government official said Mr Jenrick was "insistent that decision issued this week ie tomorrow - as next week the viability of the scheme is impacted" by the levy.
Mr Desmond is not accused of wrongdoing, and Mr Jenrick has insisted that while there could have been an appearance of bias, there was no actual bias.
Even so, the minister cancelled his approval to avoid a perception of bias in favour of the scheme.
Mr Zahawi made his comments on BBC Radio 4's Today programme - where he insisted there was no wrongdoing.
He said: “The important thing by the way is the access didn’t buy this billionaire a decision.
“The Secretary of State very clearly said to Richard Desmond ‘I can’t see you, I cannot have this meeting’.
“So you have to also be fair and make that clear that yes of course there was access, because there was a dinner party that Robert Jenrick didn’t know he was going to sit next to Richard Desmond in.
"But Robert Jenrick also said in those messages that he released… ‘I can’t have this meeting with you’."
Robert Jenrick last night agreed to release correspondence relating to the Westferry Printworks development after pressure from Labour.
The messages suggest Mr Jenrick made first contact with the billionaire after the dinner in November, but later told Mr Desmond he could not discuss the scheme.
However, officials in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government made clear Mr Jenrick wanted to issue approval before the levy kicked in on January 15.
After a frenetic exchange of e-mails within government, Mr Jenrick's office said he would be issuing his approval at 4.41pm on January 14.
The minister said yesterday: "These documents show that contrary to the wild accusations and the baseless innuendo propagated by [Labour], and restated today in a series of totally inaccurate statements and comments, this was a decision taken with an open mind on the merits of the case after a thorough decision-making process."
But Lord Kerslake, a former head of the civil service and later adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, told the BBC: "I'm pleased the documents have come out but I do think they have raised some troubling issues, I have to say, about access and influence.
"I don't for a moment suggest the minister took his decision simply because of a donation to the Conservative Party.
"But the fact is, for the price of a dinner, the developer was able to present his scheme to the minister, follow up with texts and seek to influence the decision."
Asked if it was "special treatment for a billionaire", Mr Zahawi told the BBC today: "Not at all.
"I think Robert Jenrick quite rightly wrote a very lengthy, detailed letter to the select committee, detailing exactly what he did.
"He was on his feet for over an hour yesterday in Parliament explaining exactly what happened.
“When he felt the perception of bias - there was no bias, but the perception of bias - he pulled the application and allowed a different minister now to decide the application."
