Midlands Industrial Council

The Midlands Industrial Council is a group of wealthy businessmen who help to fund the Conservative Party. According to the Sunday Times, they are one of the Party's 'most important financial backers'. The Group donated £2 million to the Conservative's between 2001-2006 and is 'dominated by property developers, the heads of haulage firms, food-processing companies and other traditional manufacturers'. The MIC is an 'unincorporated association' which means it does not need to publish accounts or disclose the names of its members

Kim Jaberi, who supplies food for airlines and is the only ethnic minority member of the council, told the Sunday Times:

'I was invited to join about five years ago. We are self-made people who can tell politicians about transport, about climate change, about tax -what real life is about.'

As well as the Conservative Party the group also provides funding to the Taxpayers' Alliance. In 2006 secretary of the MIC David Wall argued that

'I've met almost every member of the shadow cabinet you care to mention. We are for the furtherance of free enterprise ... We have a mutual interest in politics'.

Affiliation

Conservative Party | Taxpayers' Alliance

People

Robert Edmiston - Chairman | David Wall - Secretary | Tony Gallagher | Roy Richardson | Anthony Bamford | David Lees, Tate & Lyle | Allen Lloyd | David Sandworth | Kim Jaberi | Peter Shirley | John Butcher | Christopher Kelly | James Leavesley | John Leavesley | Richard Smith | Brian Pettifer | Graham Hampson Silk