IDS returns donation from North Cyprus holiday firm

BRITISH MP and former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has returned a donation of £2,000 from Cyprus Premier Holidays Ltd, a UK-based company which sells holidays to North Cyprus.

Sir Iain accepted the cash on November 16, 2021, to support his “campaigning work” in the London constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green.

The money was refunded, however, on January 19, according to the latest version of the House of Commons “Register of Members’ Financial Interests”.

Another donation of £2,000, from H&M Security Services Ltd, also accepted by Sir Iain on November 16 and also in support of his constituency campaigning work, does not appear to have been refunded, according to the register.

Asked why the donation was returned, Sir Iain told British newspaper the Daily Mirror, which first reported the story last Saturday, that he “didn’t need it”, describing the donation as “unsolicited”.

The Daily Mirror said that he voluntarily refunded the money to avoid any suggestion of a conflict of interest. It added that there is “no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of either Sir Iain or Cyprus Premier Holidays”.

Sir Iain has been vocal in his support for direct flights between North Cyprus and the UK.

In June 2018, he spoke at the second annual Turkish Cypriot Cultural Festival in Enfield, north London, where he “had the opportunity to talk about a particular problem affecting British citizens from the Turkish Cypriot community in my constituency and genuine tourists, which is the ban on direct flights to North Cyprus”.

He said at the time he was doing his “level best to urge the [British] government, the Foreign Office, and the international community to recognise the problem facing families in my constituency and their ability to fly directly to North Cyprus”.

President Ersin Tatar thanked Sir Iain in person for his efforts during a three-day visit to the UK in February 2020 as TRNC Prime Minister.