Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, commenting on the Government paying a company run by the Co-Chair of the Conservative Party £1.4 million to introduce Whitehall officials to high-net-worth individuals, said:

“Everybody knows the Conservatives are a party of the rich and powerful, for the rich and powerful, but these revelations further expose how they and their allies see Government as a chance to make easy money at the public’s expense.

“Handing over taxpayers’ money to a scandal-ridden company run by the Tory Party Co-Chair just so officials can meet the ‘great and good’ is a blindingly obvious conflict of interest and a shocking waste of money.

“The Government must immediately stop paying for these services, and make a statement on why it thought it was appropriate to pay this company for them in the first place”.