{"id":260351,"date":"2021-08-01T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1462587"},"modified":"2021-08-01T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T20:30:00","slug":"tories-must-come-clean-over-secretive-club-that-gives-access-to-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/08\/01\/tories-must-come-clean-over-secretive-club-that-gives-access-to-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Tories must \u2018come clean\u2019 over secretive club that gives access to PM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The chair of the Labour Party is calling on the Tories to publish a list of ministers who have met major party donors through a secretive club.<\/p>\n<p>Anneliese Dodds has written to Conservative co-chair Amanda Milling demanding the party \u201ccome clean\u201d about the level of access afforded to financial backers as part of the so-called \u201cadvisory group\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Financial Times reported the club was developed in a bid to connect Tory supporters with senior figures, adding that regular meetings and calls have been held with prime minister Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Image --><\/p>\n<figure id=\"embedded260822390\"><img src=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/bee262048743097498c4e7340790c630Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjI3OTI4NzEx\/2.60822390.jpg?w=640\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/bee262048743097498c4e7340790c630Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjI3OTI4NzEx\/2.60822390.jpg?w=320 320w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/bee262048743097498c4e7340790c630Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjI3OTI4NzEx\/2.60822390.jpg?w=640 640w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/bee262048743097498c4e7340790c630Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjI3OTI4NzEx\/2.60822390.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" alt=\"Rishi Sunak\" data-title=\"International deal on business taxes\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Hannah McKay\" data-usage-terms=\"FILE PHOTO\" \/><figcaption>Rishi Sunak (Hannah McKay\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Image --><\/p>\n<p>The newspaper quoted Mohamed Amersi, a businessman and Tory donor, as saying the club was \u201clike the very elite Quintessentially clients membership: one needs to cough up \u00a3250,000 per annum or be a friend of Ben\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The name was a reference to Conservative Party co-chairman Ben Elliot.<\/p>\n<p>Following the report, the Tories said an advisory board meets occasionally and receives political updates.<\/p>\n<p>Dodds is pushing for more information to be put into the public domain about the purpose of the board and who it has benefited.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after further claims were made in the Sunday Times that Elliot \u2013 the Duchess of Cornwall\u2019s nephew \u2013 helped Amersi meet the Prince of Wales in exchange for payments of thousands of pounds to his company.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START PA Quote --><\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"pa-embed\" data-type=\"quote\" data-quote=\"The way that Boris Johnson and his friends operate seems to be not about what is right but what they can get away with\" data-source=\"Anneliese Dodds\"><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/content-embed.pressassociation.com\/embeds.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END PA Quote --><\/p>\n<p>In her letter to Milling, Dodds said: \u201cIt is in the public interest for you to clarify the workings of this so-called \u2018advisory board\u2019 and Mr Elliot\u2019s role in offering a powerful elite exclusive access to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor \u2013 purely because of their status as Tory party donors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She called for a full list of all donors who have paid to be members of the board to be published, alongside the full complement of government ministers who have attended any meetings or engagements with members of the board, including dates and times.<\/p>\n<p>Dodds added: \u201cThe Conservative Party needs to come clean on what access this group had, what they used that access to lobby for, and why it appears that there is one rule for high-ranking Conservatives and another rule for everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way that Boris Johnson and his friends operate seems to be not about what is right but what they can get away with, blurring the boundaries between public and private life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are now serious questions for the Conservative Party to answer about their fundraising techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/news\/2021\/08\/01\/tories-must-come-clean-over-secretive-club-that-gives-access-to-pm\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Financial Times reported the club was developed in a bid to connect Tory supporters with top figures.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,32956,5625,432,1386,4,6964,1395],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260352,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260351\/revisions\/260352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}