Former Conservative backer Jeremy Hosking named as £200,000 donor to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party
2 min read
A businessman who previously backed the Conservatives has donated £200,000 to the Brexit Party, it has been reported.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Hosking said he was sick of being "taken in" by the Tories' failure to deliver Brexit.
The City financier, who previously gave £350,000 to Tory candidates in the 2017 election, said he knew of “three or four people" who had also made big donations to Nigel Farage's new party.
The former Ukip leader has been tight-lipped on where its donations have come from, insisting most were small pledges of around £25.
Speaking on Sky News last weekend, Nigel Farage said that a single donor had given more than £100,000 to the party but added that his identity would not be revealed until after the EU elections.
Mr Hosking has claimed that he donated the £200,000 sum over the past “two or three weeks”, with the final sum being provided after the Government confirmed the European Parliament elections were going ahead.
He said: “On a Sunday chat show last weekend it was inferred that I have given £100,000 to the recently formed Brexit Party.
“This is not the case. I have given £200,000 and urge all who wish to see a proper Conservative Party in Britain to support the BP as much as they can.
“If the Conservatives insist on diluting Brexit, what hope is there on other issues where a robust Conservative position needs to be advocated?
“I apologise to the stormtroopers of the politically correct 'Brexit Reversal Conspiracy' that, inconveniently for them, I am a British citizen and resident taxpayer, not a Russian oligarch. So I am not the ‘droid’ you’re looking for.”
Mr Hosking previously donated £1.5 million to the Vote Leave campaign in 2016 and gave £350,000 to pro-Leave Conservative MPs in the 2017 general election campaign.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
