Brexiteer’s £1m donation to Boris Johnson more evidence of comeback hopes

Published

3 years ago

January 13, 2023

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Just 48 hours after Boris Johnson rallied his supporters at an event that looked like the start of a comeback tour, we learn that a multi-millionaire pro-Brexit donor has handed the former PM £1m to fund his office.

If ever there was evidence to support the claims that Mr Johnson and his adoring fans are plotting a comeback to – as they see it – to save the Conservative Party from a crushing election defeat under Rishi Sunak, this is it.

The latest updates to the Register of MPs’ financial interests, slipped out several hours after Parliament adjourned for the weekend, reveal that The Office of Boris Johnson Ltd trousered the cash from Christopher Harborne on 21 November and he registered it on 16 December.

On top of that massive donation – which is hardly to support Mr Johnson plodding away on the Tory backbenches asking worthy questions to ministers about his local hospital and police station in Uxbridge – he’s revealed another £300,000 in income from speeches.

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Mr Harborne, a technology investor, is a former Tory donor who in 2019 was the bankroller of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. Electoral Commission figures revealed that he gave Mr Farage’s party £3m during the summer of 2019 and another £3m during the December general election campaign.

He’s also said to have donated £13.7m to the Reform Party, the successor to the Brexit Party. Previously, he donated much smaller sums, averaging around £15,000 a year, to the Conservatives since 2001.

His £1m donation to Mr Johnson’s office now confirms he’s still passionate about Brexit and that he fears the Tories under Mr Sunak are backsliding on the issue and believes a Johnson comeback is the only way to deliver Brexit.

Earlier this week, in what was described as a rapturous speech to supporters at the Carlton Club, Mr Johnson declared: “Only one party really believes in Brexit. And when people realise this, I think the political dynamic is going to change.”

And in what was seen as a challenge to Mr Sunak to deliver tax cuts, he urged the Tories: “Keep making the case for levelling up, for opportunities and for a dynamic low-tax global Britain. That’s how we will win again!”

Officially, the occasion at the Carlton Club was to mark the unveiling of a portrait of Mr Johnson, an accolade awarded to all former prime ministers. But it was widely seen as the start of a campaign to mount a comeback bid by the former PM.

That view will now be massively reinforced by this huge donation and by the disclosure that Mr Johnson is earning fees of up to £250,000 for speaking engagements, as he did for one in Singapore in December, the latest records reveal.

Why then, many will ask, if he’s earning so much money, are he and his family continuing to live rent free in a home in swanky Knightsbridge worth £20m provided by Tory donors Lord and Lady Bamford?

According to his declaration in the register of MPs’ interests, that’s worth an estimated value of £10,000 a month. Yet it has been revealed that a similar property nearby is being offered at £30,000 a month.

Let’s also consider the latest declarations of David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, barrister and Sir Keir Starmer’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, no less. He’s revealed income from speeches since 16 November of £32,300 and nearly £5,000 for six radio shows on LBC.

Now, some of these speeches were at perfectly respectable and worthy events involving Black History Month, but others were for law firms and one was for Premier Foods, manufacturers of famous brands including Mr Kipling cakes, Ambrosia custard and Bisto gravy.

No jokes about a gravy train, please! But surely so much outside work is incompatible with being a senior member of Labour’s shadow cabinet? On Sophy Ridge on Sunday last weekend, Sir Keir backed a ban on MPs’ second jobs.

He defended Mr Lammy, however. “I think David does a lot of media work, and I think media work and writing books is all part of the political process,” he said.

Some will argue, though, that with war in Ukraine, China a growing threat and Iran so volatile, to name but a few international flashpoints, the very senior post of Shadow Foreign Secretary should be a full-time job.

Finally, a study of donations wouldn’t be complete without looking at fun-loving Matt Hancock. He’s revealed that his two free tickets for a night partying at Capital Radio’s Jingle Bell Ball in December with girlfriend Gina Colandangelo and a host of celebs were worth a total of £500.

For Boris Johnson, meanwhile, it’s also been a week when Cabinet minister Grant Shapps attempted to erase him from a photo.

But this new £1m donation makes it pretty obvious he isn’t going to disappear.

World

At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

9 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

World

Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

21 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

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IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

Published

1 day ago

July 13, 2025

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.