The Mayfair haunt of politicians and Royals that’s ‘Ground Zero’ for anti-Boris plotters
IT IS the exclusive London club where Cabinet Ministers and young royals rub shoulders with plutocrats and Hollywood actors – and it is also now Ground Zero for plotters against Boris Johnson.
On one evening last week, Prince William, David Cameron and Nigel Farage were all at 5 Hertford Street, a £2,850-a-year private members’ club in Mayfair – in Mr Farage’s case, for discussions with ‘a prominent Tory donor who has become disenchanted with Boris’.
The club has also been used by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to host ‘Fizz with Liz’ meetings to schmooze Tory MPs and ‘Biz for Liz’ events with potential financial backers for a leadership bid.
Hailed as London’s ‘most influential and secretive members’ club’, it is where Prince Harry and Meghan had their first date, and where Tony Blair enjoyed a drink with Rupert Murdoch’s then wife Wendy Deng.
‘I’m terribly depressed about the situation’
Its basement nightclub, Loulou’s, has showcased the dancing styles of George and Amal Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mick Jagger.
Ms Truss, who asks the DJ at Loulou’s to play Abba hits, has used it to woo Red Wall MPs who entered the Commons in 2019 under Mr Johnson, but are becoming drawn to her neo-Thatcherite ideology.
Marco Longhi, MP for Dudley North, and Gareth Davies, who represents Grantham and Stamford, were among five ‘Wallers’ she took to dinner there on the eve of the Budget presented by leadership rival Rishi Sunak in October. She told them she wanted ‘to start standing up for Conservative values and be unashamed to do so’.
‘Liz is obviously not so crass as to say ‘vote for me if Boris is ousted’, says a source. ‘The conversation was more along the lines of, “What do your voters think about the direction of the Government?”.’
The ex-International Trade Secretary, also conducts ministerial business there. In June she charged taxpayers £1,308 for dinner with US trade representative Katherine Tai.
Friends of Mr Farage, president of the Reform UK party, claim he is being wooed by Tory donors fed up with the Government’s high-tax, pro-green, redistributive policies.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice says it will stand for low tax and regulation at the next election, and is critical of the impact on business of Government Covid measures, as were 99 Tories who rebelled last week over ‘Plan B’ restrictions.
Mr Farage declined to comment on the donor in question – telling The Mail on Sunday, ‘For once I am saying nothing’ – but the club’s founder, Robin Birley, who donated £20,000 to Mr Johnson in 2019, said in September he would ‘definitely not’ give the Tories more money.
Mr Birley said: ‘I don’t see this Government as particularly probusiness. I’m terribly depressed about the situation. We stand alone, with a huge debt, outside the EU. But we’re not taking the advantages up. I don’t see where the deregulation is taking place. You need an entrepreneurial nation, and we’re not going in that direction.
‘As an ardent Brexiteer and an ardent supporter of Boris, I’m a concerned and very, very disappointed man.’ He said Mr Farage’s visit was ‘nothing to do with me’.