Andrew Feldman
Andrew Simon Feldman (born 25 February 1966) is the deputy party treasurer, chief fundraiser and personal donor to the Conservative Party leader David Cameron. He is also party of Cameron's economic policy group and is a fully paid up member of the Tories' so-called Notting Hill set.[1]
Feldman, an Elvis Presley impersonator, is a fashion tycoon whose birthday parties are attended by the likes of 'Beyonce, Kylie and Prince Harry'. [2]
Contents
Background
Feldman lives in west London with his wife and two children. He attended Haberdashers' Aske's school in Elstree and later went to Oxford. While at Brasenose college in Oxford he became a friend and tennis partner of David Cameron. After getting his law degree he joined the family clothes firm, Jayroma, which describes its business as "the manufacture of ladieswear".
The Orka Controversy
Jayroma has links to Orka, a Macedonian textile firm, whose owner Jordan Kamcev has been under criminal investigation for tax evasion and VAT fraud.[3] According to the Guardian:
- In September 2003, Orka Holdings arranged for Mr Feldman and David Cameron, to attend the England-Macedonia football international in Skopje. Orka picked up the tab for a four-day stay at the Aleksandar Palace hotel, where the England team were staying, and also for the match itself. Mr Cameron declared this hospitality in the register of members' interests and wrote about the "junket" in his Guardian Unlimited diary blog at the time.
- What neither Mr Feldman nor Mr Cameron would have been aware of at the time was that the owner of Orka, Jordan "Orce" Kamcev, was later to come under criminal investigation.
Pass into Parliament Controversy
In August 2007 Feldman was embroiled in controversy when The Independent revealed that he had been using a "research assistant" pass to access Parliament meant for a researcher to peer, Lord Harris of Peckham -- a Cameron donor and ally, and 'one of the least active members of the Lords' -- who has no office and asks for no research.[4]
Deripaska affair
Nathaniel Rothschild claimed in a letter to the The Times that Feldman was involved in attempting to solicit a donation from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in the summer of 2008.
- Sir, Since your paper - along with your sister publication The Sunday Times - has made much out of what may or may not have happened at a private gathering of my friends this summer in Corfu, I thought I should make the following observations. I am surprised that you focus on the fact that one of my guests, Peter Mandelson, is a friend of another, Oleg Deripaska. Not once in the acres of coverage did you mention that George Osborne, who also accepted my hospitality, found the opportunity of meeting with Mr Deripaska so good that he invited the Conservatives’ fundraiser Andrew Feldman, who was staying nearby, to accompany him on to Mr Deripaska’s boat to solicit a donation. Since Mr Deripaska is not a British citizen, it was suggested by Mr Feldman, in a subsequent conversation at which Mr Deripaska was not present, that the donation was “channelled” through one of Mr Deripaska’s British companies. Mr Deripaska declined to make any donation. [5]
Dinner at Downing Street, visits to Chequers
- See Powerbase page on Downing Street Dinner Guest List
- See Powerbase page on Chequers Dinner Guest List released March 2012
Notes
- ↑ Bernard Josephs and Leon Symons, Special report: Team Cameron’s big Jewish backers, The Jewish Chronicle, 13 October 2006, p. 3
- ↑ Duncan Campbell and Ian Traynor, Fashion tycoon and tennis partner charged with keeping new Tories afloat, The Guardian, 1 April 2006
- ↑ ibid.
- ↑ James Macintyre and Ben Russell, Lords to query pass for Cameron fundraiser, The Independent, 2 August 2007
- ↑ Letter to the Editor, Nathaniel Rothschild, The Times, 21 October 2008.
