Conservative donors have spent lavish sums on hunting trips and champagne parties at a fundraising auction attended by the prime minister, Theresa May, and her potential successors, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.
A £15,000, eight-person excursion to shoot pheasants on a Scottish estate and a £27,000 all-expenses paid trip to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix were among the lots at the annual Tory summer ball on Wednesday, according to the political news website Politico.
Conservative politicians reportedly took a break from the leadership race to give the departing prime minister a standing ovation at the event at the private Hurlingham Club in Fulham, south-west London.
Video messages from cabinet ministers and the former Tory leaders David Cameron and William Hague offering May their thanks were also played to guests as they ate rare beef and drank expensive wine.
One donor who was sitting at the same table as the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, is said to have stumped up £40,000 for a private champagne party for 100 people at the London Cabaret Club in Bloomsbury.
An advertisement for the prize is said to have offered a choice of entertainment including The Great Gatsby and James Bond.
Meanwhile, a brochure described the shooting trip as “an opportunity to take a 20-bird, high-quality pheasant shoot in Dumfriesshire” at the Raehills estate, with accommodation, dinner and breakfast included.
A signed photograph of Johnson and Cameron and a £24,000 private jet day trip for nine people to any destination in Europe were also sold.
Michael Gove, the environment secretary, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, the Brexit minister James Cleverly, the Cabinet Office minister, David Lidington, and the Conservative chairman, Brandon Lewis, were among the ministers at the event.
Hunt was criticised by opposition politicians on Thursday morning after he refused to accept foxhunting was cruel during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Conservative donors have stumped up large amounts of money at previous fundraising events. At the party’s Black and White ball last year, a bidder paid about £55,000 for the privilege of spending a working day with May.
Earlier this year, Electoral Commission figures showed donations to the Conservatives had fallen sharply. Between 1 January and 31 March, the party accepted £3.83m from 220 separate donors, compared with £7.45m from 230 donors in the final quarter of 2018.
