[Diggers350] Cash for honours, now top Tory donors bankrolling Prince Charles charity
Tony Gosling
tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Thu Sep 9 22:08:32 BST 2021
The pressure group Republic has contacted
Scotland Yard and reported both future king
Charles and his former royal valet Michael
Fawcett on suspicion of breaching the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
Concerns raised over top Tory donors bankrolling Prince Charles charity
Super-rich Conservative supporters accused of
"buying access" as scale of Tory links to the Princes Foundation revealed
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/author/seth-thevoz/>Seth
Thévoz 9 September 2021, 12.00am
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/top-tory-donors-are-bankrolling-prince-charles-charity/
* It is alarming, deeply unfair, and very
damaging to our democracy, that such access should be so readily for sale."
Prince Charles embattled charity has been
bankrolled by major Tory donors, whose names are
engraved across its headquarters in Scotland.
The Prince's Foundation's has been supported by a
host of leading Conservative donors, including
hedge fund manager Michael Hintze, finance and
property tycoon Wafic Said, and David Brownlow,
who funded the controversial renovation of Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat.
Transparency campaigners have raised concerns
about the the super-rich buying access to the Royal family.
News of the ties between the Prince's charity and
leading Tory donors comes after
<https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/prince-charles-aides-fixed-cbe-for-saudi-tycoon-who-gave-1-5m-0b5cb7qf2>revelations
that a Saudi tycoon, Mahfouz bin Mahfouz, was
given an honorary CBE after donating more than
£1.5m to royal charities. A string of leaked
emails were explicit about the transactional nature of the agreement.
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/petition-dark-money-uk-politics/?source=taggable-block>Get
dark money out of UK politics
Sign our petition to tell the government to
tighten electoral laws and shine more light on
political donations. We need to know who is
giving what to our political parties.
His money helped fund the multimillion pound
restoration of Dumfries House, an 18th century
stately home owned by the Princes Foundation, which is based there.
Parts of the estate are now named after wealthy
donors. Mahfouz has a fountain, a wood, a garden
and a building all named after him, following his
donations, while others are commemorated on plaques.
Dumfries House does not declare all of its
donors, with several listed as anon. But among
those who have been named, there appears to be an
overlap with some of the Conservative Partys top donors.
Hedge fund manager
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/prince-charles-billionaire-adviser-stands-to-gain-from-australia-trade-deal/>Michael
Hintze was a founding supporter of the
buildings restoration. He was knighted by Prince
Charles in 2013, for services to the arts.
With an estimated fortune of £1.5bn, he is one of
the UKs richest people and has given at least
£4.4m to the Conservatives since 2003. This
includes donating money directly to Boris Johnson and Theresa May.
Another donor,
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/boris-johnson-borrowed-52000-for-downing-street-refurb/>David
Brownlow, is the founder of Huntswood business
consultancy, and a major donor to Dumfries
Houses parklands and gardens. He and his
companies have also given £3.3m to the Tories since 2005.
Brownlow has faced questions over
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/boris-johnson-borrowed-52000-for-downing-street-refurb/>an
undeclared donation to the Conservative Party
last year, to help pay for the
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/boris-johnson-charged-taxpayers-28000-for-fancy-floorboards-refurb/>refurbishment
of Boris Johnsons Downing Street flat. The
Electoral Commission is still investigating the
affair, after saying there were reasonable
grounds to suspect an offence may have occurred.
He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2019,
becoming Baron Brownlow of Shurlock Row.
Finance and property tycoon Wafic Said is
currently listed as the 89th richest person in
the UK, with a fortune of £1.9bn. Like Hintze, he
was a founding supporter of the Dumfries House
restoration. His wife, Rosemary Said, has donated
over £2.5m to the Conservatives since 2005.
Hintze, Brownlow and Ann Said have all been
members of
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/inside-elite-tory-fundraising-machine/>the
elite £50,000-a-year Leader's Group of top Tory
donors. The Conservative Party
<https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-refuse-reveal-billionaire-donor-24825563>no
longer releases information about the Leaders
Group membership, making it impossible to tell if
they are still members. However, they still
continue to donate more than enough to qualify
for the £50k annual membership fee.
Sue Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on
Corruption, said on the Mahfouz donation: "It is
increasingly clear that wealthy businessmen,
including from highly corrupt jurisdictions, see
making donations to the governing party and the
royal family as a way to gain influence and access.
It is alarming, deeply unfair, and very damaging
to our democracy, that such access should be so readily for sale."
Related story
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/take-opendemocracys-big-tory-donor-quiz/?source=in-article-related-story>Take
openDemocracys Big Tory donor quiz
09-09-2021 | Stewart Kirkpatrick
How much do you know about where the Conservative Party gets its money from?
'Access' to Prince Charles
The Princes Foundation is
<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/29/prince-of-wales-charity-princes-foundation-launches-inquiry-into-cash-for-access-claims>conducting
an investigation over allegations that middlemen
were charging £100,000 for dinners with Prince
Charles. Reports said that fixers were taking a
25% cut for themselves, and offering an overnight
stay at Dumfries House as part of the package.
The Sunday Times has also reported that a
concierge company owned by the Conservative
Partys co-chairman, Ben Elliot,
<https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-chairman-ben-elliot-peddled-access-to-prince-charles-hsw5t5bzr>peddled
access to Prince Charles, offering dinners with
the Prince as part of its £15,000-a-year service.
Elliot is the nephew of Prince Charles wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.
One donor, Mohamed Amersi, was
<https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-chairman-ben-elliot-peddled-access-to-prince-charles-hsw5t5bzr>reportedly
encouraged to give £1.2m to Charles charities
after being introduced by Elliot. It followed his
having made more than £500,000 of donations to the Conservative Party.
Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency
International UK said: We welcome the
investigation of matters at The Princes
Foundation, where it is alleged that wealthy
donors could buy access to the Prince of Wales.
Once concluded, the findings of this inquiry
should be published in full to help assure the
public that those who are awarded honours receive
them solely on merit, not as a result of the depth of their pockets.
Clarence House
<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/06/norman-baker-urges-police-investigation-mahfouz-prince-charles>has
said that Prince Charles had no knowledge of any access-peddling.
Sir Michael Hintze, Lord Brownlow, and Wafic Said
did not respond to a request to comment, while
The Princes Foundation also declined to comment.
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them,
he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and
gave to them.
<http://biblehub.com/luke/24-31.htm>31 And their
eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he
vanished out of their
sight. http://biblehub.com/kjv/luke/24.htm
'Capitalism is institutionalised bribery' TG
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