Come dine with Ruth... that’ll be £15k plus tip

Ruth Davidson’s status as the darling of Conservative Party members – and donors – was confirmed after more than £15,000 was bid at a gala fundraiser to secure dinner with the Scottish Tory leader.

Ms Davidson is reported to have raised more than seven times the sum offered to dine with a key member of Theresa May’s cabinet, the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox.

Hundreds of guests paid as much as £15,000 a table to attend the Black & White Ball and rub shoulders with senior Conservatives including the Prime Minister, Amber Rudd, David Lidington, Jacob Reesmogg and Zac Goldsmith. Mrs May is said to have thanked donors gathered in the central hall of London’s Natural History Museum for not having been “fairweather friends” despite her party’s troubles in the past year.

The Edinburgh MSP did not attend the event, but a party spokesman said: “Ruth looks forward to taking the successful bidder for a meal in her constituency – there is no shortage of excellent venues to choose from.”

It is the first time Ms Davidson has been one of the “prizes” in at the Black & White Ball. Her £15,000 price tag compared with just £2,000 for a meal with Mr Fox, one of the cabinet’s leading Brexiteers.

However, the Scottish Tory leaderwasoutbidbyalotoffering dinner with the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in the Churchill War Rooms, which fetched £30,000. One donor paid £55,000 to shadow the Prime Minister for a day.

A home-cooked dinner for four at the residence of Environment Secretary Michael Gove and his wife, columnist Sarah Vine, raised £12,500.

Guests also bid for an I’m A Celebrity get together for 12 friends with Stanley Johnson and his co-star Georgia Toffolo at the Boisdale restaurant in Mayfair.

Their co-star Kezia Dugdale is not believed to be part of the prize.

Ms Toffolo, a cult figure for combining being a 23-year old reality TV show winner and a Tory, told a national newspaper that she briefly discussed her status as “queen of the jungle” with Mrs May. She added that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was “campaigning” for her to run as an MP.

Guests dined on cured confit sea trout followed by slow cooked blade of beef, washed down with Nyetimber Classic Cuvee Multi Vintage sparkling wine from West Sussex, a 2016 Domaine Louis Moreau Chablis.

0 Stanley Johnson and Georgia Toffolo arrive at the Conservative party Black and White Ball