The Labour party repaid a loan of £2m to Richard Caring in June, only to see a company run by the clothing tycoon give £100,000 to the Conservatives, according to new figures from the Electoral Commission. The donation was one of dozens made during the general election period, with political parties receiving over £50m in donations in the first half of 2015.
Between April and June of this year, the Conservatives received £9,163,385, while Labour were given £7,800,618. Ukip were given £2,016,582 in three months, while the Liberal Democrats received only £1,391,939.
Caring’s loan was one of several repaid by the Labour party in the last financial quarter, according to figures from the Electoral Commission. Loans from the care home founder Chai Patel and the financier Barry Townsley were also repaid. The party had been paying up to 6.5% interest on the loans, which totalled £7m.
The loans were made to the party in 2005, and became the focus of a cash-for-honours scandal. The then prime minister, Tony Blair, was interviewed by the police after it emerged that businessmen were making large loans to the party. At the time loans did not need to be reported.
Caring is a director of Annabel’s (Berkeley Square) Ltd, which gave the Conservative party £100,000 just after the May election. In recent years, Caring has bought several well-known London venues, including the Mayfair club Annabel’s and the Ivy restaurant. Earlier this year, it emerged that the businessman had withdrawn 5m Swiss francs in cash (£2.25m) from his HSBC account in 2005.
Labour’s main donors between April and June were the unions, with Unite giving £1,769,675 in the last quarter.
The Conservatives received dozens of donations from private individuals, including Lord Glendonbrook, who gave £333,000 in April. Other donations included £253,000 from James Lupton, who has been tipped for a peerage in the upcoming honours List. MECM Ltd, which is a division of the huge US hedge fund Moore Capital, gave the party £250,000, as did John Griffin, the founder of taxi company Addison Lee.
It also emerged that the Conservatives have delayed publishing the names of the elite group of donors who regularly dine with the prime minister and cabinet ministers, despite promising transparency after a cash-for-access scandal in 2012.
The prime minister said he would publish the names of donors who attend “Leader’s Group” events – where membership requires donations of £50,000 a year – every three months. However, the most recent data covers only up to the end of 2014, meaning the information for the key election period has not been revealed. A spokesman for the Conservative party said an updated list would be published “shortly” and declined to say why it had not been published in almost eight months.
