The sickening secrets of the Tories’ £1bn ball
Ministers and donors get their noses in trough at £15,000-a-table auction.. with £55k splashed to spend a day with PM, £12k to have meal cooked by the Goves in their home.. and a mere £2,000 to have lunch with Liam Fox
SUPER-RICH donors flocked to admire the dinosaurs as the Natural History Museum hosted a Tory ball... and they quite liked the exhibits, too.
Guests with a combined wealth of over £1billion paid up to £15,000 for a table and the chance to dine with Cabinet ministers at the Black & White Party.
I’m A Celebrity winner and Tory supporter Georgia “Toff ” Toffolo arrived with jungle pal Stanley Johnson, while Jacob Rees-Mogg was right at home with the fossils in his black bow tie.
Grandees including Lord Lamont mingled with the likes of advertising mogul Maurice Saatchi as the Prime Minister rattled her tin for donations, vowing to “defeat socialism”.
Ministers were under strict orders to attend the ball, where access to highranking Tories was put up for auction to the highest bidder.
The chance to spend a day on the campaign trail with Theresa May
Instead of standing up to the privileged few the PM is wining and dining them IAN LAVERY LABOUR PARTY CHAIRMAN SLAMS THE TORY PARTY FUNDRAISER
reportedly sold for £55,000, and dinner with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in the Churchill War Rooms went for upwards of £30,000.
Auctioning contact with ministers was banned in the past two years of the annual event but it was back to business as usual on Wednesday when at least £500,000 was raised by ticket sales and bids.
Other chances to spend quality time with those running the country included a meal with Michael Gove and wife Sarah Vine in their family home, which fetched around £12,500.
Mr Gove told the Mirror he had “no idea” who the successful bidder was.
Dinner in Edinburgh with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson sold for £15,000 – but lunch with Trade Secretary Liam Fox fetched just £2,000.
The chance of a sevencourse “wild and foraged” dinner with Toff and Stanley was also up for grabs.
So too was a day of pheasant and partridge shooting, despite Environment Secretary Mr Gove pushing through new laws to prevent animal suffering. The League Against Cruel Sports was “taken aback”. Chief Eduardo Goncalves said: “Shooting compromises animal welfare and should be tackled as an issue by the Conservative Party, not promoted.” A copy of the infamous “Labour Isn’t
Working” poster, signed by Margaret Thatcher, also went on the block.
As he waited for a taxi after the party, arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Mirror: “My wife bid on something, but she won’t tell me what. I think it’s a gift.”
The meal opened with cured confit sea trout, pickled pumpkin and charred cucumber, followed by slow-cooked blade of beef with boulangere potatoes and kale.
Canapes were served for dessert. To wash it all down guests had a choice of a 2016 Domaine Louis Moreau Chablis or a 2014 Chateau Calvimont Graves.
Breaking with tradition, champagne was replaced with English sparkling wine – dubbed “Brexit juice” by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Mr Gove was spotted smoking a cigarette outside the venue, as the party went on until after midnight.
Earlier around 150 guests were kept waiting outside in the cold as the doors to the bash opened late.
Boris, Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid were seen entering by the steps into the main hall, which houses the skeleton of a giant blue whale.
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey and Tory MP Philip Davies, who share a flat and have long been rumoured to be in a relationship, arrived arm-in-arm and later left hand-in-hand. Labour chairman Ian Lavery said: “At a time when the Tories are squabbling over Brexit negotiations, the NHS is experiencing its worst winter on record and workers continue to suffer a crisis in living standards, it is worrying that the Cabinet seem more preoccupied with stuffing Tory Party coffers than sorting out the mess they’ve left us in. “Instead of standing up to the privileged few, Theresa May wines and dines them.”