Michael Hintze - Conservative Party Donations

Conservative Party Donations

In 2006, at the time of the Cash for Peerages allegations concerning the Labour Party, Hintze voluntarily revealed he was one of the previously anonymous patrons who had made loans to the Conservative Party. To date his known loans and donations to the party total around £4million. In the five months to September 2011 he donated £31,000, enough to grant him membership to the Conservative Treasurers’ Group, the second highest rung on the party's donor’s ladder, which allows its members access to senior Conservative figures through a series of lunches, receptions and campaign launches.

When the Conservative Party were in opposition, Hintze provided the following personal cash donations: £37,500 to George Osborne; £25,000 to David Willetts; £10,000 to the private office of Dr Liam Fox MP; £1,200 to Theresa May; £7,000 to David Davis; £1,500 to Adam Holloway; £5,000 Boris Johnson. In addition, CQS made non-cash donations of: £25,763 to William Hague; £10,439 to Dr Liam Fox; £1,254 to George Osborne. In May 2008, David Cameron declared a donation from Hintze to the Conservative Party that was used to pay for drinks receptions for Tory MPs and their partners. In March 2008, Hintze paid for a private jet to ferry Cameron and George Osborne from Newcastle to Biggin Hill after the Conservative Party conference.

In October 2011, it was revealed that Adam Werritty, a close friend and business associate of then Secretary of State for Defence Dr Liam Fox MP, was provided with a free desk by Hintze at CQS's London base as part of his £29,000 donation to Fox's charity Atlantic Bridge. Hintze also supplied a private jet for Fox and Werritty to fly from the United States to London in May 2011.