PM parties with his richest donors (and the kings and queens of sleaze came too)
WITH an election fast approaching, the Tories are eager to raise as much money as they can.
But the guest list for last night’s glittering Black and White fundraising ball is likely to raise eyebrows from some traditional Conservative supporters.
Sex shop queen Jacqueline Gold, her porn baron father David Gold and lapdance club owner Peter Stringfellow – with his wife Bella Wright – joined the Prime Minister for the glittering event.
The Tories hoped it would be the most lucrative dinner in modern party political history, with an expected take of £3million.
Hedge-fund kings, City tycoons and captains of industry were also among the 1,100 guests paying between £500 and £1,500 a ticket for the bash at London’s exclusive Grosvenor House Hotel. They sat at tables with Mr Cameron, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Party Chairman Grant Shapps.
Miss Gold is perhaps best known for bringing the Rampant Rabbit sex toy to Britain after transforming her father David’s business Ann Summers.
They were joined by Apprentice star Karren Brady, who became a Tory peer last year, despite her history working for Mr Gold’s sexobsessed Sport Newspapers. Also attending was David Sullivan, who made his fortune from porn films, adult magazines and sex shops.
AS ministers mingled with multimillionaires at the Tories’ Black and White Ball last night, one question must have weighed heavily on their spirits: why, with less than three months to go, is their party making no headway in the polls?
After all, this has been a catastrophic fortnight for Ed Miliband, who looks less like a PM-in-waiting by the day, as every policy he launches backfires.
By contrast, the Tories can boast of steady growth, now predicted to gather pace, with unemployment plummeting and more people in work than ever.
Elsewhere, too, they’ve made solid progress in such areas as reforming pensions and the welfare system and restoring school standards.
Yet their poll ratings remain stubbornly in the low 30s, neck-and-neck with the most unconvincing Opposition for more than 30 years. Why aren’t they doing better?
Certainly, they can blame some of their woes on the constraints of coalition, which have fuelled the rise of Ukip while Lib Dem defectors have rallied to Labour.
But isn’t there another explanation? And doesn’t a clue to it lie in last night’s glitzy fundraising ball at London’s Grosvenor House hotel, with its secret guest list of bankers, hedge-fund managers and dodgy tycoons (not to mention pornographers)?
Yes, all parties need cash from donors (though the Tories have quite enough to splash out £100,000 a month on fatuous Facebook advertisements). But as a former PR man, David Cameron should surely realise that events such as this seriously undermine the Tories’ message that we’re ‘all in it together’.
Indeed, they leave an impression of a pampered political elite, courting the mega-rich as they drift ever further out of touch with voters’ real-life struggles.
As for policies, the Tories present themselves more as managers than conviction politicians, ring-fencing this budget and that to compete with the two Eds over how much of our money they dare promise to spend. Where is the Big Idea to fire the public’s imagination?
It’s all very well for Mr Cameron to plead with prospering firms to be more generous with employees. But how about a passionate commitment to give every worker a pay rise – by cutting taxes? And why is there no mention of immigration, health or Europe among the party’s top six campaign priorities?
The Tories cannot rely on Mr Miliband’s blatant uselessness to do their work for them. If they’re to win, they must convince voters they share our concerns and they’re determined to tackle them.
With just 86 days to go until May 7, they won’t achieve this by sucking up to hedgefund managers at Grosvenor House.