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Tories have a ball as Labour donor bankrolls their night at Annabel’s
Nicholas Cecil6 Feb 2009
Restaurant millionaire Richard Caring, who has financed the Labour Party, has started donating to the Conservatives.
The owner of The Ivy, Le Caprice, Soho House and London nightclub Annabel's lent Labour £2 million for the 2005 general election.
Now, he is understood to have donated an all-expenses-paid night for 140 guests at Annabel's which was auctioned at the Tory Black and White Ball in Battersea Park on Wednesday.
New Conservative treasurer, hedge fund expert Stanley Fink, bid £70,000 for the special night out at the Mayfair club.
Mr Caring, who is estimated to be worth £450 million, is also understood to have met David Cameron at least once, raising hopes that he will become a Conservative backer and even possibly “defect” from Labour.
The rag-trade millionaire's loan to Labour is still outstanding and it is not clear whether he will ask for it back, though he has already delayed requesting repayment.
At the ball, which was a far more low-key party than previous years, with no champagne, black tie or flowers, the Tory leader appealed for financial backing to build up a £40 million election war chest.
He also stressed the depths of the difficulties facing Britain and why he believed this made electing a Tory government so vital.
The event is said to have raised less money than in previous years as the City reels from the credit crunch.
Gifts given for auction at the ball have to be declared as donations under the rules policed by the Electoral Commission and they are expected to figure in the latest declarations published within months.
With strong links to Top Shop billionaire Sir Philip Green, Mr Caring made much of his wealth from supplying clothes. He now owns a 200ft yacht, a home in north London which has been dubbed the “Versailles of Hampstead”, and the well-known golf course at Wentworth in Surrey.
Gordon Brown is said to have personally stepped in to ensure that Mr Caring did not ask for his loan back as Labour struggled to rebuild its finances in the wake of the cash-for-peerages furore. Tony Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy — who was at the heart of the police probe but was never charged — is believed to have persuaded Mr Caring to lend the money.
Mr Caring hit the headlines in 2005 when he masterminded a charity event for the NSPCC in St Petersburg, featuring Sir Elton John and former American president Bill Clinton.
There have also been suggestions that designer Sir Terence Conran, who has had links to Labour, is warming to the Conservatives and the Conran shop designed some of the decorations for the Conservative ball.
Labour has been left hugely reliant on the unions for funding as big private donors dry up. Talks on a new system of funding have become deadlocked.
Reader views (4)
It's funny but whenever I hear Cameron speak the word Balls occurs to me.
- Bill Bailey, Chingford England, 07/02/2009 15:27
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Calling the event a 'ball' when the dress code was not at least black tie is like calling a political party 'Conservative' when it is led by 'Dave' Cameron.
What a waste of space that guy is.
- Henry Gurwood, London, UK, 06/02/2009 22:40
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Well the rich always support thse they think will let them keep their fortune, even if it is at the expense of everyone else.
Mind you I wouldn't want the smarmy permatanned fool anywhere within a hundred miles of one of my parties. Ugh!
- Kerry, Purley, 06/02/2009 17:27
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Well Labour no longer has the best Tory leader the Tory party never had!
As for Cameron saying he is green well the only re-cycling the Tory Party knows is old ministers who come back from the dead! Now wher is Norman Tebbit in a time of unemployment when more and more Londoners what Boris to get on his bike!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 06/02/2009 14:54
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