Michael Bishop

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Sir Michael Bishop is a British businessman and a Conservative life peer. He was executive chairman of British Midland until he sold his stake in the airline to Lufthansa on 1 July 2009 for a reported £223m, boosting his estimated personal fortune of £280 million [1] to over nearly £500 million.

Bishop was also Deputy Chairman of Airtours plc, a Non-Executive Director of Kidde plc and Chairman of Channel 4 Television from 1993-97.[2]

On 1 February 2011, Bishop was created a life peer as Baron Glendonbrook, of Bowdon in the County of Cheshire, and was introduced in the House of Lords on 22 March 2011,[3] where he sits as a Conservative.

Labour and Tory donor

According to the MP's Register of Financial Interests:

  • Henry Bellingham - in March 2010 gave him £25,000 for help with responsibilities as Shadow Minister for Justice. [4]
  • David Willetts - in February 2010 gave him £35,000 to support the work of his office as Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, to pay annual salary of research assistant.

In 1999 Bishop attended the £350-a-head gala dinner at the Bournemouth Pavilion ballroom during the 1999 Labour Party Conference. The dinner raised £250,000 for the Labour Party. Sir Michael Bishop was a former Tory supporter, who lent planes to John Major's election campaign[5].

British Midland gave more than £5,000 in sponsorship to the Labour Party in 1999-2000[6].


References

  1. Sunday Times Rich List, "Sir Michael Bishop". The Times (London), 27 April 2008. Acc 2 November 2008
  2. Queen's University Belfast Honorary Graduands 2002 Accessed 4 Sep 2007
  3. House of Lords Minute of Proceedings for 22 March 2011.
  4. House of Commons, REGISTER OF MEMBERS’ FINANCIAL INTERESTS as at 6 September 2010
  5. The Times; Home; 29 Sep 1999; 'Blair dinner raises Pounds 250,000 and eyebrows' Andrew Pierce and Tom Baldwin
  6. Financial Times; National News; 5 Sep 2000 'Campaigns put Labour in the red Politics Four Elections Prove a Strain of Party Coffers' Andrew Parker