The Leader's Group

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Conservative Party £50,000-a-year donor dining club chaired by Howard Leigh

The Leader's Group
Type Conservative Party donor club
Logo
Founded 2003
Founder(s)
Dissolved
Registration ID
Status
Headquarters
Location
Area served
Services
Registration
Key people Howard Leigh, Baron Leigh of Hurley (chairman)
Website
Remarks


The Leader's Group (also styled Leaders Group / Leader’s Group) is a donor club of the Conservative Party and is described as the “premier supporter group”.[1] To become a member an annual membership fee of £50,000 must be paid. As a member of The Leader's Group you can expect to “join David Cameron and other senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, post-PMQ lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches”.[1]

Set up in 2003, David Cameron's Leader’s Group “has grown to become a key part of Tory fundraising” according to the Daily Mail, which revealed in January 2014 that the elite dining group had donated more than £43.1 million to the party since 2001. Secrecy surrounding its events has raised suspicions; no list of members has ever been published nor details of the topics discussed ever revealed. The Conservatives continue to refuse to release public information about the group[2] beyond details of those who have attended the events every quarter since 2012.

The chairman of the Group is Howard Leigh, Baron Leigh of Hurley.[3]

Fundraising and access

David Cameron confirmed in 2008 that donors of at least £50,000 were treated as members and invited to dinners at which they were briefed on policy; one venue used was Cameron’s home in Kensington. Liberal Democrat Norman Baker called it “cash for access in all but name.” Hedge-fund donors named in that period included Michael Hintze of CQS and Paul Ruddock.[4]

By March 2010 the Sunday Mirror reported more than £18 million raised through the club since 2006, with dinners at Blenheim Palace, Chelsea mansions, City dining rooms and Cameron’s Notting Hill house. Early organisation was associated with Olivia Bloomfield (later Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist), then chief of staff to party treasurer Michael Spencer, working with Stanley Fink.[5]

The Conservative website advertised a ladder of “donor clubs”: Fastrack (£250–£300), Team 2000 / City and Entrepreneurs Forum (£2,000–£2,500), Front Bench Club (£5,000), Renaissance Forum (£10,000), Treasurers’ Group (£25,000) and the Leader’s Group at the top (£50,000).[6][7]

openDemocracy calculated that Leader’s Group donors had given about £132 million in the 2010s, and that more than 80 per cent of Conservative funds raised for the 2019 general election to the date of its investigation came from the club. It found sixty named donors collectively worth at least £45.7 billion; City-linked donors more than £50 million since 2010; five hedge-fund backers more than £18 million; and regular attendance by Boris Johnson and cabinet ministers, sometimes at official residences. Senior donors received knighthoods and peerages.[8]

In July 2018 the Guardian reported that 81 benefactors had paid £7.4 million for Leader’s Group access to Theresa May in nine months, with cabinet guests including Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Liam Fox. At least ten of those donors supported a hard Brexit.[9]

The party pledged after earlier scandals to publish quarterly attendee lists. Publication lapsed for long periods. In April 2024 i reported that the Conservative website no longer advertised the clubs; the party declined to say whether the Leader’s Group still operated. Regular £50,000 gifts continued from past members including Lubov Chernukhin, Oluwole Kolade (13 Leader’s Group events, 2013–18, per openDemocracy) and Yan Huo. In 2022 Mohamed Amersi said he had paid £50,000 for 2020–21 membership and then been dropped from invitation lists.[10][11]

As of 2026 the Conservative site still invites supporters to “Join a Donor Club” and a “Donor Clubs” page asks for contact via treasurers@conservatives.com. Reporting on Kemi Badenoch’s planned revival of a high-value donors’ Advisory Board treated the Leader’s Group as an existing access tier beneath that board.[12][13]

Chairman: Howard Leigh

Howard Leigh, Baron Leigh of Hurley, Conservative senior treasurer and peer, chairs the Leader’s Group. In 2011 the Guardian reported that he had more than 70 members paying up to £50,000 a year for meetings with Cameron and that Tory insiders said he had helped bring in more than £2 million a year through fundraising events. The same reporting linked him to introductions of donors to Liam Fox during the 2005 leadership contest, some of whom later funded Adam Werritty’s travel.[3]

Leigh co-founded Cavendish Corporate Finance, which advised on the sale of Smythson when Samantha Cameron worked there. The Guardian noted that Leader’s Group attendees Jeremy Isaacs and Howard Shore were among buyers involved in that transaction.[14]

Related Conservative funding vehicles

openDemocracy listed Leigh as chairman of both the Treasurers’ Group (£25,000) and the Leader’s Group (£50,000). A separate Advisory Board, reported as a still higher tier (donations of the order of £250,000), was wound down after “cash for access” controversy and discussed again under Badenoch in 2026.[7][13]

Philip Smith, Baron Smith of Hindhead attended Leader’s Group events as nominee of the National Conservative Draws Society. openDemocracy attributed some £8.7 million since 2010 to the draws society, its Scottish counterpart and related association-club money routed through that channel — the largest sums associated with any Leader’s Group attendee in that analysis.[7]

Donors attending Leader's Group events

Guests include:

Alexander Temerko | Andrew Brannon | Andrew Law | Michael Bradfield | Henry Davis | Countywide Developments Ltd (represented by Anthony Gallagher, Director) | Offshore Group Newcastle Ltd (represented by Alexander Temerko, Dennis Clark & David Edwards, Directors) | Edward Eisler | Michael Freeman | Mr Amjad Bseisu | Bradley Yam | Charles Wigoder | Philip Gibbs | DPK Contractors Limited (represented by Rishi Khosla, Director) | Mike Gooley | Arne Groes | Daniel Green | James Lupton | Dr James Hay | Shore Capital Ltd (represented by Howard Shore, Director) | Oluwole Kolade | Dr Mike Lynch | Lord Farmer | Ian Mukherjee | Rajeev Misra | Sir Henry Keswick | IPGL Limited (represented by Michael Spencer, Director) | Melanie Sherwood | Jitesh Gadhia | Ali Mosawi | Broadland Properties Ltd (represented by John Guthrie, Director) | Kenneth Costa | Chinook Urban Mining Ltd (represented by Ferras Zalt, Director) | The Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover | Babatunde Soyoye | David Roper | Roger Orf | Michael Tory | Edmund Truell | Georg von Opel | Roger Nagioff | Edward Wray | Chris Ingram | United & Cecil Club (represented by Christopher Fenwick, Deputy Chairman ) | Christopher Rokos | David Mayhew | David Ross | Gary Lydiate | Hugh Sloane | Ian Taylor | Jeremy Asher | John Frieda | IM Properties PLC & International Motors Ltd (represented by Lord Edmiston, Director ) | Lord Fink | Lord Harris of Peckham | Mark Samworth | Westfield Shoppingtowns Ltd (represented by Michael Gutman, Director ) | Neil Ostrer | Paul Adrian Beecroft | J&H Sales (International) Ltd (represented by Ranjit Baxi, Director ) | Sir John Hall | Wates Group Services Ltd (represented by Timothy Wates, Director and James Wates director ) | Bestway Cash & Carry Ltd (represented by Zameer Choudrey, Director ) | Lady Xuelin Bates | Sir Martin Arbib DL | FIL Holdings (UK) Ltd (represented by Barry Bateman, Director ) | Flowidea Ltd (represented by Henry Angest, Director ) | William Cook Holdings Ltd (represented by Andrew Cook, Chairman ) | Michael Davis | Ravinder Gidar | Jeremy Isaacs | Kevin Lomax | CC Property Company Ltd (represented by Antoine Mattar, Director ) | Sun Mark Ltd (represented by Rami Ranger, Director ) | Sir Paul Ruddock | [Ann] Rosemary Said | James Stunt | Sir Michael Hintze | Sovereign Business Jets Ltd ( represented by Anastasia Sergeef & Serge Sergeef, directors ) | Abdul‐Majid Jafar | Ayman Asfari | David Ord Limited (represented by David C Ord, Director) | George E Robinson | Harilela Hotels (UK) Ltd (represented by Aron H Harilela, Director) | Malcolm J Scott | National Conservative Draws Society (represented by Philip Smith, Chairman) | Rainham Steel Company Limited (represented by William J Ives, Director) | Norbrook Laboratories (GB) Ltd (represented by Lord Ballyedmond, Chairman ) | Roderick H Brooks | Hani Farsi | Lesley A Jackson | Michael Batt | Nisham S Sidhu‐Brar | Peter Harrison | B&S Properties Ltd (represented by Peter Virdee ) | Ramez Sousou | Xuelin Black | Alexander Andrew Fraser | RAB Capital Ltd (represented by William Philip Richards & Michael Alen‐Buckley, Directors) | Alan Lewis | Babyway International Ltd (represented by Graham Leslie, Director) | Headstock Distribution Ltd (represented by Keith Bradshaw, Director) | May Makhzoumi | JCB Research (represented by Sir Anthony Bamford, Director) | David Harding | David Lilley | Dinesh Dhamija | Sir Simon Robertson | Stephen Catlin | Yan Huo | Anne Street Partners Limited (represented by Lord Ashcroft) | Clerewell Ltd (represented by Sir Michael Heller, Director)[15]

Later reporting added attendees including Lubov Chernukhin, Mohamed Amersi, Dominic Johnson (Somerset Capital / associate of Jacob Rees-Mogg), and Hardy McLain.[9][10]

2012

2013

2014

See also

Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 'Donor Clubs', Conservative party website.
  2. ↑ Jason Groves, Revealed: The £43m paid by elite group of donors for access to top Tories including David Cameron, Daily Mail, 23 January 2014, acc 4 February 2014
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Guardian, Revealed: the link between Liam Fox donors and Tory HQ The Guardian, 19 October 2011.
  4. ↑ The Guardian, How short-selling profited the Tories The Guardian, 28 September 2008.
  5. ↑ Sunday Mirror, Tories rake in £18million from businessman by selling access to leader David Cameron Daily Mirror, 28 March 2010.
  6. ↑ The Guardian, Conservative website offers dinner with Cameron to donors The Guardian, 26 March 2012.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Peter Geoghegan / openDemocracy, Inside the elite Tory fundraising machine openDemocracy, 9 December 2019.
  8. ↑ openDemocracy, Revealed: The elite dining club behind £130m+ donations to the Tories openDemocracy, 22 November 2019.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Guardian, Revealed: Tory donors who paid £7m to socialise with May The Guardian, 20 July 2018.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 i News, How 'dining clubs' help keep party donors secret i, 14 April 2024.
  11. ↑ The Guardian, Give me back my £200,000, major donor tells Tories The Guardian, 5 February 2022.
  12. ↑ Conservative Party, Donor Clubs conservatives.com, accessed 9 September 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Mace Magazine, Badenoch moves to revive Conservative donors’ advisory board Mace Magazine, 5 September 2026.
  14. ↑ Holly Watt, The Tory Leader's Group donor club: 'A chance for like-minded people to talk' Guardian, 4 May 2015, accessed 5 May 2015.
  15. ↑ Adam Withnall How much for dinner with David Cameron? Tories reveal list of ‘mega-rich donors’ who spend £50,000 to dine with the PM Independent, 13 November 2014, accessed 24 February 2015
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