Just as the House of Commons is about to rise for Easter recess, Her Majesty’s Official Opposition has been hit with some rather unfortunate news. As revealed by the Guardian, the Tories have lost one of their biggest donors – in a move that could, insiders believe, lead to the closure of the party’s headquarters in the north of England. Good heavens…
The paper heard from two Conservative sources that HomeServe founder Richard Harpin – who has donated £3.8 million to the party since 2008 and was ranked by the Electoral Commission as the Tories’ 10th biggest donor in 2023 – has now put a pause on his funding. It’s a significant loss to the party: the entrepreneur donated nearly £850,000 last year alone and former prime minister Rishi Sunak even used one of Harpin’s helicopters during the 2024 general election campaign. In recent years, the home repairs guru had been making a monthly £33,000 cash donation to the Tories, which covered the costs of its northern HQ in Leeds – and the pausing of these payments has prompted fears that the northern base will now close.
This is not the first sign that the party is facing financial difficulties. Ahead of the July poll, it emerged that John Caudwell, a longstanding billionaire Tory donor and founder of Phones4U, would endorse Labour instead. Just months after the Tories’ election defeat, Reform UK celebrated the defection of ex-Conservative funder Nick Candy to its ranks – with the luxury property developer promptly made chief fundraiser amid promises he would give a ‘seven-figure’ sum to Farage’s lot. Alright for some!
But despite donor losses, in the last three months of 2024 the Tories managed to raise nearly £2 million as Badenoch settled into the top job – double that pulled together by Sir Keir Starmer’s army and more than any other party. And although the party has lost out on Harpin’s contributions, a Tory source insisted to the Guardian that the party was expecting a strong next quarter of donations. It’s not all bad news, eh?
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