Jeremy Hunt has given over £100k to local Tory
party in effort to retain seat
Exclusive: Records show extent of chancellor’s
donations since 2019 as polling suggests he is on course to lose at general
election
Aletha Adu Political correspondent
@alethaadu
Sun 3 Mar 2024 17.25 CET
Jeremy Hunt
has been forced to contribute more than £100,000 of his own money to his
constituency Conservative party to bolster his chances of re-election, official
records show, amid warnings that he is set to lose his seat.
Hunt’s
Godalming and Ash constituency is a target seat for the Liberal Democrats, and
a Survation poll projects that he is on course to become the first chancellor
in modern times to lose at a general election.
Electoral
Commission records show that he has given £105,261 to the South-west Surrey
Conservative association over the last five years.
The
chancellor’s personal donations to the association under the last three
Conservative prime ministers stand in stark contrast to the total £4,447 he
gifted under the leadership of Theresa May and David Cameron.
The most
recent accounts for Hunt’s local association have warned that its “balance
sheet is at a less than satisfactory level”. A note stated that members’ annual
subscriptions were due to increase this year.
Donations
to the chancellor’s association were down by almost 50% in 2021. South West
Surrey received only £42,693 in donationsthat year, down from over £80,000 in
2020.
A Labour
source said: “This tells you everything you need to know about the state of the
Conservative party, with the chancellor seemingly spending more time dishing
out personal cheques to prolong his political career than fixing the economy
his government has wrecked.
“And on the
same day the chancellor is talking about clamping down on money being wasted,
he might want to look at how he is spending some of his own money.”
Our morning
email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and
why it matters
Hunt said
on Sunday: “I hope to be chancellor after the election.” However, the poll in
his constituency shows the Lib Dems on 35% of the vote, the Tories on 29% and
Labour on 22%. When local voters were asked to outline the issues that would
determine how they would vote, health and the NHS was top, while only 4% said
tax was a key issue.
Daisy
Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “It’s no wonder that
Jeremy Hunt is on the brink of his losing his seat when people across Surrey
are furious they can’t get GP appointments, that their hospitals have been left
to crumble, and water firms are still allowed to pollute their rivers.
“In the
chancellor’s own back yard, food bank demand is surging after his government
failed to get a grip on the cost of living crisis. Liberal Democrats are fired
up in Surrey to oust Conservative MPs who have taken people for granted.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário