Difference between revisions of "Peter Cruddas"
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Revision as of 15:00, 26 March 2012
Peter Cruddas is Britain’s 15th richest man, and the founder of the spread betting firm CMC Markets, which focuses on bets on the financial markets.[1]
In June 2011 the self-made billionaire was appointed co-treasurer of the Conservative Party, alongside long-serving treasurer Stanley Fink.[1] [2] Fink stepped down in early 2012, to be replaced by another hedge fund millionaire, Michael Farmer.
Tory donor
He has given about £350,000 to the Conservative Party between 2009-11[1] and was by far the largest donor to the recent ‘No to AV’ campaign in 2011, bankrolling the campaign with £400,000.[3] An investigation of the funding of Policy Exchange in 2011 found that his Peter Cruddas Foundation was the think-tank's single largest donor. The Foundation donated £140,000 to Policy Exchange in 2007/8 and £300,000 in 2008/9. These donations have supported research on public service delivery and welfare, ‘broken Britain’, and child poverty. The Foundation is credited in Policy Exchange reports on health, education and welfare reform and child poverty. [4]
Cash for access
On 25th March 2012 the Sunday Times released an undercover video showing Peter Cruddas offering access to the prime minister David Cameron in return for donations of around £250,000. In the video Cruddas states:
- 'Two hundred grand to 250 is Premier League… what you would get is, when we talk about your donations the first thing we want to do is get you at the Cameron/Osborne dinners.
- You do really pick up a lot of information and when you see the Prime Minister, you're seeing David Cameron, not the Prime Minister.
- But within that room everything is confidential - you can ask him practically any question you want.
- If you're unhappy about something, we will listen to you and put it into the policy committee at number 10 - we feed all feedback to the policy committee.' [5]
Following the release of the video Cruddas resigned from his position as Tory co-treasurer. Cruddas stated:
- 'Clearly there is no question of donors being able to influence policy or gain undue access to politicians. Specifically, it was categorically not the case that I could offer, or that David Cameron would consider, any access as a result of a donation. Similarly, I have never knowingly even met anyone from the Number 10 policy unit. But in order to make that clear beyond doubt, I have regrettably decided to resign with immediate effect.' [6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jason Groves, Billionaire gambling tycoon is new Tory treasurer... despite tax-dodging claims Daily Mail, 7 June 2011, accessed 9 June 2011
- ↑ James Quinn and Ben Harrington, CMC founder Peter Cruddas to be co-treasurer of Conservative Party , The Daily Telegraph, 7 June 2011
- ↑ A Letter from Donors to NO to AV, 9 April 2011, accessed 1 December 2011
- ↑ The Cold War on British Muslims p.50
- ↑ 'Tory Peter Cruddas sold access to PM, Sunday Times allege', BBC, 25 march 2012.
- ↑ Daniel Boffey, 'Senior Tory Peter Cruddas resigns after cash for PM access sting', The Guardian, 25 March 2012.
Category:Conservative Party Donors
