Hedge fund founder Howard swells Tory coffers with £1m donation

The hedge fund founder Alan Howard has delivered a lift to Conservative Party coffers with a £1m donation as political fundraising intensifies within the run-up to the following normal election.

Sky News has learnt that the City financier has pledged the seven-figure sum in what is known to be his largest single donation to the occasion thus far.

Mr Howard is the co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management and one in every of Britain’s most profitable hedge fund managers.

Based in Switzerland, he was positioned at quantity 100 on this yr’s Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of £1.75bn.

Last yr, his earnings are reported to have exceeded £82m.

He has given cash to the Tories beforehand, with studies suggesting he had handed greater than £600,000 to the occasion since 2019.

Mr Howard can be a big philanthropist, having given substantial sums to homelessness and Holocaust charities, amongst others.

It was unclear whether or not his seven-figure donation can be disclosed on an inventory to be revealed by the Electoral Commission on Thursday.

One supply stated his pledge could have been acquired in early April, shortly after the March cut-off level for publication this week.

If so, Mr Howard’s donation will likely be made public in September.

The information of his contribution to Tory funds comes amid the hunt to fund events’ election conflict chests, with Britain as a consequence of go to the polls by the top of subsequent yr.

Last month, Mohamed Mansour, an Egyptian-born billionaire who serves because the Tories’ senior treasurer, stated he was giving £5m to the occasion – stated to be its greatest donation for greater than 20 years.

He praised Rishi Sunak’s dealing with of the economic system and stated the prime minister “gets the importance of technology and innovation”.

The Tories’ monetary fortunes should some extent fallen hostage to the splintering of Brexit sentiment within the parliamentary occasion and amongst its donors.

Boris Johnson was seen as a money-spinning chief, with rich donors below his management together with the likes of Lord Bamford, the JCB tycoon, and Lord Cruddas, the CMC Markets founder.

Both have misplaced their enthusiasm to again the occasion with their cash since Mr Johnson’s defenestration, leaving its treasurers to hunt options to fill the funding hole.

It emerged this week that Labour had additionally landed a brand new multimillion pound donation, from Gary Lubner, a former boss of Autoglass.

He instructed the Financial Times he wished Sir Keir Starmer to guide a Labour Party into authorities and stay there for “a long time”.

The newspaper stated he was anticipated to provide round £5m to assist fund its election marketing campaign.

Spokesmen for Brevan Howard and the Conservative Party each declined to remark.