RUDD HANDS BACK £5,000 DONATION

WORK and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd has handed back a £5,000 donation from a businessman at the heart of the London Capital & Finance scandal.

Rudd’s Hastings and Rye constituency was given the money last year by Simon Hume-Kendall, who was identified in a report by LCF’s administrators as being involved in a series of suspicious transactions using savers’ money. But she paid the cash back last month after questions were raised over LCF. There is no suggestion Rudd ( pictured) knew about any problems when the donation was accepted.

Hume-Kendall, 65, a former chairman of the Tunbridge Wells Conservatives, founded LCF under a different name in 2012. Companies he controlled used LCF money to invest in developments in the Dominican Republic and Cape Verde.