East Yorkshire’s richest man donated £250,000 to the Conservative Party just days after Boris Johnson’s election as its leader, it has been revealed.
The £250,000 donation by Wren Kitchens owner Malcolm Healey was made two weeks into Mr Johnson’s premiership.
According to details published by the Electoral Commission, it was the third highest recorded individual cash donation to the party in a three-month period between July and September last year.
It also came just three months after Mr Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds were spotted in East Yorkshire close to Mr Healey’s 12,000-acre Warter Priory estate near Pocklington.
A week before Theresa May resigned as Tory leader, the couple enjoyed a weekend break in the region.
Any hopes of keeping their stay low-profile vanished when they visited a fish and chip shop in Bridlington where Mr Johnson posed for selfies with staff and customers.
They were also seen at the RSPB’s nature reserve at Bempton while Mr Johnson also posed for photographs during a Sunday lunch at the Old Star pub in Kilham, near Driffiield.
Whether the couple were guests at Mr Healey’s private estate, which also includes several pheasant and partridge shooting drives as well as over 65 residential properties, is not known.
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It’s also unclear whether their paths crossed again during the Prime Minister’s recent controversial New Year holiday with Ms Symonds to the exclusive privately-owned island of Mustique in the Carribean.
Mr Healey also owns a property on the island originally made famous in the 1960s when the late Princess Margaret owned a villa there.
Last week the Prime Minister declared in the MPs’ register of interests that his stay in Mustique was a gift from David Ross, the Grimsby multi-millionaire businessman and Tory donor who co-founded Carphone Warehouse.
His entry in register says: “Accommodation for a private holiday for my partner and me, value £15,000.”
However, Mr Ross subsequently said he was not villa’s owner and denied footing the bill, merely helping put the PM in touch with villa management.
Under parliamentary rules, MPs must identify anyone who has done them a financial favour.
A No. 10 spokeswoman said: “All transparency requirements have been followed, as set out in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.”
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But Labour has written to Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone demanding an investigation.
Mr Healey, who made his first fortune selling the Hygena kitchen and furniture group to MFI in the early Eighties, has given £560,000 to the Conservative Party in donations since 2017 according to the Electoral Commission.
They reflect the vast wealth of a man who, along with his property developer brother Eddie, is a regular fixture in the annual Sunday Times Rich List.
Mr Healey maintains a low public profile but his fundraising work in the Caribbean is featured on the website of the Mustique Charitable Trusts, which raises money to support young people, vulnerable adults and local communities in the group of islands which are collectively known as St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Along with his wife Angela, Mr Healey is included in a list of donors, patrons and benefactors along with rock stars Mick Jagger and Bryan Adams, who also own properties in Mustique.Two trusts founded by Mr Healey - the East Riding Foundation and the Stanley Trust - are also included on the same list.
Earlier this week Wren Kitchens announced it was moving into the US market with the opening of its first showroom in the country.
Part of Mr Healey’s West Retail Group which also includes electronics retailer Ebuyer, Wren currently has 90 showrooms across the 海角视频 and huge headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Barton, as well as further manufacturing in Howden and Scunthorpe.
It designs, manufactures and delivers more than 2,000 kitchens every single week and employs more than 5,500 staff.
The expansion into America will feature a roll-out of new showrooms, a new manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania and a new headquarters in the state.