Sainsbury’s heir lost £8m in donations to groups trying to defeat Brexit
A LABOUR peer and former chairman of Sainsbury’s has emerged as one of the biggest losers of the EU referendum campaign after spending nearly £8 million trying to avert Brexit.
Official figures published yesterday showed that Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who served as a science minister under Tony Blair, donated £4 million to the official Remain campaign and £2 million to both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The heir to the Sainsbury’s supermarket fortune was made a peer by Mr Blair in 1997 and is one of the Labour party’s biggest individual donors.
In a statement he said: “During the last two years I have helped put together the Stronger In Europe Campaign, and have provided them with funds.
“I have also made donations to the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and a number of other registered bodies. I did so because I believe strongly that coming out of Europe will be damaging to our economy and society, and dangerously so if we come out of the Common Market.”
Before the referendum campaign the supermarket mogul was one of a number of major Labour donors who stopped giving funds to the party when Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader.
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said his donation was a “recognition” that the party had the second largest political campaign for Remain and was a “testimony” to the hard work of its members.
Labour yesterday rejected calls to throw the peer out of the party for giv- ing money to the Liberal Democrats. The figures, published by the Electoral Commission, showed that Labour received significantly more in donations that the Conservatives.
The party received £6,186,695 in such funding in the second quarter of the year, well ahead of the Tories on £4,321,937.
In total, 12 registered political parties accepted almost £15 million in donations between April and June, up by £3 million on the previous quarter.
The Liberal Democrats received £2,867,678 during the period in the run-up to the EU referendum vote, while Ukip took £1,252,891.
The Conservatives’ biggest individual donor was Gerardo Lopez Fojaca, a businessman, who gave the party £400,000, while Michael Davis handed them £262,500, the Electoral Commission reports.
Apart from Lord Sainsbury, Labour’s other major contributors were unions, with Unite donating £816,559, and Unison £604,411.