Tory chiefs have failed to disclose an elite donor club’s private dinners with Boris Johnson and other top ministers.
Labour research reveals more than half the Tories’ big-money donations since the last election has come from a small clutch of super-rich men in the Leader’s Group.
And its attendees gave £2.4million of the £5.7million declared in the first week of the 2019 campaign alone.
The secretive “premier support group” costs £50,000 a year to join -granting members access to “dinners, post-PMQs lunches and drinks receptions” with the PM and top ministers.
Yet despite David Cameron pledging to publish details of attendees four times a year, Tory chiefs have not done so for 17 months.
Labour’s Jon Trickett wrote to Tory chairman James Cleverly today demanding he come clean about the “cash for access” arrangement.
Mr Trickett’s letter said sources of Tory funding are “deeply disturbing” amid a “growing public concern that the Leader’s Group is a form of cash for access to government.”
It added: “I am therefore calling on you to release the information from the last two quarters of 2018 and first two of 2019 immediately, and to commit to ensuring that this information is released on a quarterly basis in future.”
The Shadow Cabinet Office minister told the Mirror: “Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are in the pockets of the super-rich.
“One third of all UK billionaires have donated to his party, while Tory governments have delivered ‘get rich even quicker’ schemes of tax giveaways to big corporations and the richest few, at the expense of the rest of us.
“The secrecy surrounding the Leader’s Group is very disturbing and shows you can’t trust the Tories.
“People deserve to know who is buying access to the top of government and what they expect to get in return.”
No public notes are taken at Leader’s Group meals and the exact details, including dates and venues, are shrouded in secrecy.
One meal in 2017 saw donors diner on lobster and beef hours after the government confirmed another year of the benefit freeze.
Research by the news website openDemocracy claims Leader’s Group members worth a collective £45.7bn have given more than £130m to the Conservative Party since 2010.
And Labour research said Leader’s Group attendees gave £21.6m of the £36.1m in cash donations over £7,500 to the Conservative Party, between results day in 2017 and the start of this election.
Mirror analysis of the Tories’ most recent files suggests 120 men - and two women - went to Leader’s Group meals between January 2017 and June 2018, when Theresa May was PM.
Boris Johnson joined them in five out of six three-month periods.
And their influence continued as official figures yesterday showed the Tories trousered £5.7m in big-money donations in the first week of the election campaign - including from six billionaires.
Leader’s Group attendees accounted for at least £2.4m of those new donations, Mirror analysis suggests.
They include billionaire theatre producer John Gore, who gave £1m and who we revealed today is registered as living in the Bahamas.
Mr Gore, who produced musicals such as Wicked and Chicago, told the Mirror he was “employed by a US company so that’s where I pay my tax. A big amount. That is where I am tax resident.”
Asked why Companies House records state his country of residence is the Bahamas, Mr Gore said: “I have looked into that and I think it is because they needed an address.”
Property firm Countywide Developments - whose director Tony Gallagher attended a Leader’s Group meal in late 2017 - gave £500,000 in the first week of the campaign.
And the party took £200,000 in the first week from Leader’s Group attendee Lubov Chernukhin. The banker and wife of a former ally of Vladimir Putin was pictured partying with Theresa May earlier this year and once paid £160,000 for a tennis match with Boris Johnson.
The Tories also took £200,000 in the first week from Andrew Law, the head of £3bn hedge fund Caxton Associates, and £100,000 from property developer Jeremy Knight-Adams - both named as attending Leader’s Group meals.
Broadland Properties - which owns Hever Castle in Kent - gave £50,000 after its director John Guthrie attended meals as part of the club.
And Churchill Retirement Group gave £150,000 after founder and CEO Spencer McCarthy attended a meal in spring 2018.
None of the individual donors are accused of wrongdoing.
A Conservative Party spokeswoman said: “The Conservative Party is funded by membership, fundraising and donations, including over 600 local associations across the country and it is this small-scale, grassroots support which is the bedrock of the Party.
“The Electoral Commission figures exclude the significant sums we have received from small donations.
“All reportable donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law.”
