Conservative Party Donations
Kirkham is well known for his support for the Conservative Party. By 1996 he had lent the party £4 million in an interest free loan, and in the 1996 New Year Honours was given a knighthood. John Prescott, then in opposition called it "the crudest example yet of honours given for financial services to the Tory Party". Kirkham responded that the honour was for his charitable work for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Animal Health Trust. In September 1996 Kirkham told The Daily Telegraph that his donations were not "anything at all like that sort of magnitude", and that the £4m had in fact been a loan to the party from his son Michael which was repaid a few weeks later.
Kirkham gave £200,000 to Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex's Ardent TV company in 1994 because he had "a burning desire to succeed".
In June 1999, Kirkham was made a life peer as Baron Kirkham, of Old Cantley in the County of South Yorkshire. He was one of the working peers recommended by then Tory leader William Hague who had borrowed Kirkham's helicopter for electioneering.
Read more about this topic: Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham
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