Advertisement
UK markets open in 2 hours 27 minutes
  • NIKKEI 225

    39,915.06
    +174.66 (+0.44%)
     
  • HANG SENG

    16,564.44
    -172.66 (-1.03%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    82.58
    -0.14 (-0.17%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,161.70
    -2.60 (-0.12%)
     
  • DOW

    38,790.43
    +75.63 (+0.20%)
     
  • Bitcoin GBP

    50,997.34
    -3,097.26 (-5.73%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • NASDAQ Composite

    16,103.45
    +130.25 (+0.82%)
     
  • UK FTSE All Share

    4,218.89
    -3.20 (-0.08%)
     

Labour calls on Tories to reveal which ministers met elite donors’ club

<span>Photograph: David M Benett/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: David M Benett/Getty Images

The Conservatives must publish the names of all ministers who secretly met an elite group of party donors, Labour has said.

The party is facing questions over the conduct of the party’s co-chair, Ben Elliot, the nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall, after the Financial Times reported that he had created a club for some of the party’s most generous donors, some of whom gave £250,000 a year or more. The members are reported to have regular access to the prime minister and Rishi Sunak.

The Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds, has written to Amanda Milling, who co-chairs the Conservative party with Elliot, asking her to explain how access to ministers was granted.

ADVERTISEMENT

The letter calls on Milling to publish a list of every government minister who attended meetings or engagements with members of the group and a full list of the elite donors – including minutes of when those meetings took place.

“The Conservatives have serious questions to answer over this latest cash-for-access scandal,” Dodds said.

“The public have a right to know which government ministers are meeting with donors who have access to the corridors of power, including what appears to be exclusive access to the prime minister and the chancellor.

“The way Boris Johnson and his friends go about their business seems to be less about what is right and more about what they can get away with.”

Elliot has previously apologised to Tory MPs for arranging a fundraising dinner that almost prompted the resignation of the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, who was seated next to the property developer Richard Desmond.

Desmond raised the issue of his controversial Westferry development with Jenrick and later exchanged texts with the cabinet minister, who eventually gave the project the green light.

Elliot is best known for running Quintessentially, a concierge company that caters to the whims of those who can afford elite membership, and has described himself as a “willing slave to the stars”. Demands from members have stretched from persuading a world-class tenor to perform at an intimate surprise party to sending a circus troupe to a child’s birthday in Dublin.

Elliot is facing further questions after a wealthy client said he had introduced him to Prince Charles after paying his company tens of thousands of pounds.

Mohamed Amersi, a telecoms magnate, was an elite member of Quintessentially, which organised for him to fly to meet the prince in 2013. Amersi has since donated more than £1.2m to the prince’s charities.

Amersi described this arrangement as “access capitalism” in an interview with the Sunday Times. Elliot is understood to deny the work was connected to his role at the Conservative party and insists he undertook the connection in order to raise funds for charity.

A Conservative spokesperson said: “Government policy is in no way influenced by the donations the party receives – they are entirely separate.”