Top Tory donor says he won’t give Conservative party any more cash
Top Tory donor and hotel mogul Sir Rocco Forte has said he won’t hand over any more cash to the Conservative Party.
Speaking to GB News, the businessman, who founded the world famous Rocco Forte hotel chain, said the party no longer stands for anything he believes in and that he was “not a fan” of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
He told presenter Camilla Tominey: “What’s the point of having a Conservative government which is following policies which have been followed for the last 15 years and haven’t delivered good growth?
“We have a sort of social democratic government in parliament. We don’t have a Conservative government and there’s no one who really believes in driving the economy and changing the system to do that.”
‘Not a fan’
Sir Rocco, who previously donated £100,000 to Boris Johnson, when asked if he would give them cash again, told Tominey: “No.”
He said he was yet to consider donating money to Reform UK, but said: “Reform UK is sort of a protest party which will take votes from the Conservative Party and if it’s allowed to grow to the level the Brexit party did, it could force the Conservatives into a different direction.”
The entrepreneur also spoke out against Hunt whilst on the show, claiming he is blaming all the UK’s economic problems on former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
“I’m not a fan at all. Everything is being blamed on Liz Truss,” he said.
“The thing that spooked the markets, more than anything else, was the subsidy on energy costs, which then was forecast to be £150bn.
“We’ve continued with subsidising energy costs and it hasn’t cost anything like that.”
He added: “It coincided with the Bank of England, maybe on purpose, announcing quantitative tightening on the same day as the mini-budget. Obviously, [Truss] rushed but things should have been taken much more quietly and steadily.”
The 78-year-old donated the £100,000 to back Johnson in the 2019 election.
Sir Rocco also previously paid for a £12,000 party at Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair to celebrate Johnson’s victory in the Tory leadership contest.
Sir Rocco said he “didn’t regret” giving Boris Johnson money as he “got Brexit to happen”.