Brexiteer’s £1m donation to Boris Johnson more evidence of comeback hopes
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.”
MPs donations
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.
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Keir Starmer defends David Lammy
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
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
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The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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