Businessman reveals he is behind £75,000 donation to Robert Jenrick – but tax haven questions remain
A businessman has revealed he is the person who donated £75,000 to Robert Jenrick via a company that has taken loans from a tax haven-registered firm.
Phillip Ullmann, who describes himself as a social business entrepreneur, said he provided the donation to the Conservative leadership candidate through Spott Fitness, which he said is part of his family’s group of companies.
Questions were raised over the weekend about the origin of the donation as the fitness coaching app company’s latest accounts show it has no employees, has never made a profit and has more than £300,000 in debts.
In January, the company registered a loan from Centrovalli, a business registered in the British Virgin Islands, as first revealed by Tortoise Media.
British law states companies that donate to political parties or politicians must be UK-based and carry out business in the UK.
Mr Ullmann has now revealed he was behind the donation from Spott Fitness, but did not explain why he did not donate personally, as he has done for several other politicians.
The Labour Party have reported the donations to the Electoral Commission, with the elections watchdog saying it is “carefully considering” the complaint.
Mr Jenrick defended the Spott Fitness donation on Sunday, saying he understood it was “perfectly legal and valid”, but he would not say it was from Mr Ullmann, just that he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company” and it would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way”.
Companies House does not have Mr Ullmann, who sold his family’s recruitment business Cordant Group in 2020, registered as part of the company but does have Mark Dembovsky as the sole director. Mr Dembovsky is also director of Covenant Advisory, the consultancy business Mr Ullmann set up.
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Jenrick defends £75k donation
Mr Ullmann said he is “concerned about the grave challenges” facing the UK and the world and has “come to see that we need huge political change” – which he thinks Mr Jenrick can achieve.
The businessman said: “I also wanted to back Robert Jenrick whose serious solutions to big challenges – including on migration – appeal to me.
“I don’t agree with him on everything but broadly we are aligned.
“I chose to give the money from Spott Fitness, a company which is part of my family’s group of businesses.
“It’s a phenomenal company that’s using tech to improve people’s health and will be a hugely successful business.
Ullmann: Donor transparency important
“But I don’t want there to be any suggestion at all that I’m hiding anything and I understand the importance of donor transparency.
“So I’m happy to confirm my connection to Spott. I love my country, I was born and raised in the UK, and have always paid tax and lived here.
“I’m going to continue to set out my ideas for changing the world and our financial system and am always happy to meet with people and set out my ideas in this space.”
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All four Tory candidates interviewed
Mr Ullmann, whose German-Jewish parents fled the Nazis to come to the UK, said he has previously donated to Labour peer Maurice Glasman as well as Conservative MPs Sir John Hayes and Danny Kruger, the New Conservatives group and the New Social Covenant Unit.
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The political donations register shows ahead of the general election he gave £20,000 to Sir John, £660 worth of FA Cup semi-final tickets to Mr Kruger, who is the chair of New Conservatives and New Social Covent Unit, and £50,000 to the New Conservatives group itself.
Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said when companies fund politicians via offshore loans “it raises serious questions about the money’s provenance”.
He added: “Electoral law was supposed to only allow businesses with a substantive UK presence to make political contributions, yet examples like this show it permits anonymous cash from anywhere in the world into our democracy.”
The other Conservative leadership candidates are: Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly.
They are taking part in a series of hustings at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this week and will be voted down to two by MPs, then members will get to choose between the remaining two and a leader will be announced on 2 November.
Kemi Badenoch has denied the Conservatives would consider means testing the pensions triple lock, as she accused her opponents of trying to “scare people”.
The Tory leader sought to clarify remarks she made on LBC on Thursday evening, which were interpreted as her leaving the door open to means testing the system that guarantees the state pension rises in line with average earnings, inflation or 2.5% – whichever is highest.
The Conservatives have long championed the triple lock – introduced by former chancellor George Osborne during the coalition government – but some senior Conservatives have recently hinted that it might not be sustainable in the long term.
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Ms Badenoch told LBC her party would look at “means testing” – something she said “we don’t do properly here” – in response to a question about the triple lock.
Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK were quick to seize on Ms Badenoch’s comments, claiming the Tory leader would “cut your state pension”.
However, the Tory leader posted on X that she was referring to means testing generally rather than with specific regards to the triple lock.
‘Bungling Badenoch’: Tory pension proposal triggers political pile-on
From criticising “excessive” maternity pay to describing herself as becoming “working class” while working at McDonald’s – not to mention slamming sandwiches as “not real food” (compared to a desktop steak), Kemi Badenoch is never one to shy away from controversy.
Supporters argue this straight-talking directness is a key part of her appeal. But it also gets her into trouble.
On an LBC phone-in last night she was asked what she wanted to do for younger voters fed up with the triple lock on state pensions (which means they go up every year by 2.5%, inflation, or average earnings – whichever is higher).
Her response was to suggest “we’re going to look at means testing” as “we don’t have a system that knows who should get what”.
The idea that the Tories might not be religiously committed to a universal triple lock has led to a political pile-on.
It’s unclear what exactly means testing the triple lock would work in practice; it’s clearly not a developed policy yet (indeed, Ms Badenoch argues the party shouldn’t be focused on specific policies so soon after their drubbing at the last election).
Politicians on all sides have criticised the triple lock before, with the shadow chancellor Mel Stride previously describing it as “unsustainable” and the new pensions minister Torsten Bell as “messy” in his previous role at the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
But Labour are adamant that they would never abandon the triple lock.
Somehow, the Conservative attack on the government’s treatment of pensioners over the winter fuel allowance has become a big question mark over the Tories’ commitment to a promise which has become totemic with many of their core voters.
“Labour punished poor pensioners, snatching away winter fuel payments due to poor means testing,” she said.
“We need better mechanisms, not proxies like pension credit or free school meals. So why are Labour, Reform, and Lib Dems pretending we’re cancelling the triple lock? They’re scared.”
She continued: “In the clip attached, I say ‘no’ to looking at the triple lock.
“But we do need to deliver better means testing. Big tech and supermarkets know more than the government about its citizens. It’s time to change the system for the better. Let’s do this for the next generation.”
On Friday morning, Nigel Huddleston, the Tory party’s co-chair, defended Ms Badenoch and said means testing was very different to scrapping it all together.
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Speaking to Matt Barbet on Sky News Breakfast, Mr Huddleston said: “What Kemi said yesterday in answer to the triple lock… the first word out of her mouth was ‘no’.
“What she talked about yesterday in an interview was about means testing, and this is something she has commented on before, in the context of, for example, winter fuel.
“And she said, look, millionaires probably shouldn’t get it. Millionaires, not millions of pensioners – millionaires.
“We probably do need to look at means testing at some of those levels, and I don’t think many viewers would disagree with that.”
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