Anthony Bamford
Anthony Bamford is the chairman of JCB and a member of the Midlands Industrial Council. He is one of the largest donors to the Conservative Party and has also donated money to the Taxpayers' Alliance.[2]
Contents
Background
Bamford is the son of Joseph Cyril Bamford, who founded the excavation machinery business JCB in 1945. The firm prospered in the postwar boom.[3]
Bamford has a brother Mark Bamford, who is a director of eight companies within the JCB Group and sits on the board of the Conservative Party Foundation. [4]
Business career
Anthony Bamford took over as head of JCB in 1975.[3]
Property
'W magazine reports:
- In addition to the Gloucestershire stronghold [1'700 acre Daylesford], there’s a London mansion; a 4,200-acre estate in Staffordshire, known as Wootton; Heron Bay, the fabled Barbados home once owned by Ronald and Marietta Tree; and Château de Léoube, in Provence. At sea and in the air they are no less pampered: There’s the Virginian, their 240-foot yacht previously owned by John Kluge; the private jet; and one of the biggest private helicopters in England, a Sikorsky S-76 (Anthony uses it to commute daily to his factory in Staffordshire).[5]
Politics
Bamford was knighted by the Conservative Government in 1990.[3]
In December 2005, Bamford was one of a number of prominent business-people who signed a letter to the Telegraph calling on Chancellor Gordon Brown to lower taxes.[6]
Bamford was a guest of Tony Blair at Chequers on 11 December 2004.[7]
The Independent reported in 2006:
- "Anthony puts much of his success down to anti-union policies adopted at JCB over the years, and has spiritual reservations about Labour," says a political acquaintance. "But on a personal level, he finds Blair pretty charming, and is obviously happy with the direction he has taken the party in. It's a measure of the remarkable guy he is that he can be friends with Blair, Cameron, and the Prince of Wales, all at the same time."[3]
Bamford's name was withdrawn from a list of prospective Conservative peers in May 2010, amid claims that the decision was related to his tax affairs.[8]
Three years later in August 2013 he was finally made a peer. [9]
Dinner at Downing Street with the Camerons
- See Powerbase page on Downing Street Dinner Guest List
Affiliations
JCB | Taxpayers' Alliance | Conservative Party | Midlands Industrial Council | White's
External Resources
- Big Wheel: The social circle of Sir Anthony Bamford, Independent, 23 August 2006.
- Rich List 2012: No.2 - Sir Anthony Bamford (£1.85bn), Birmingham Post, 23 January 2012.
- Kamal Ahmed, Sir Anthony Bamford: cut tax on UK manufacturing, Sunday Telegraph, 12 February 2012.
- Joe Murphy, JCB chief and Tory donor 'is next in line for a peerage', thisislondon.co.uk, 27 March 2012.
Notes
- ↑ Jamie Doward, Feud between Bamford brothers threatens to cast light on funding for Tories, the Guardian, 14-November-2010
- ↑ Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Tories forced to name club of millionaire supporters, the Sunday Times, 15-October-2006
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Big Wheel: The social circle of Sir Anthony Bamford, Independent, 23 August 2006.
- ↑ Meet the Board: Mark Bamford Esq, Conservative Party Foundation website, acc 26 March 2011.
- ↑ James Reginato, Lady Bountiful, W Magazine, December 2007.
- ↑ Ambrose Evans-pritchard, UK faces death by taxes, say City chiefs, Telegraph, 3 December 2005.
- ↑ Open House: The Prime Minister's guest list, Independent, 20 June 2005.
- ↑ Vikram Dodd, Conservatives confirm leading party donor withdrew from peerage list, The Guardian, 31 May 2010.
- ↑ Working peerages announced, Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street, press release, 1 August 2013
