Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism details for the first time the full extent of donations made to the Tory party by members of the Financial Services industry since 2005.
The biggest individual City backer of the Tories is David Rowland, who has contributed £4.013m in just two years. Property investment made Rowland his first fortune, but he has moved into more general investment and City activity.
In second place is Michael Farmer, founder of hedge fund RK Capital, who has donated £2.97m over the last five years.
The top ten donors together gave £13.17m (13% of all Tory funding), as shown by the table below.
| Name | Sector | Total Donated | |
| 1 | David Rowland | Financier | £4,031,016 |
| 2 | Michael Farmer | Hedge Fund | £2,973,850 |
| 3 | Stanley Fink | Hedge Fund | £1,945,141 |
| 4 | Michael Hintze | Hedge Fund | £1,235,000 |
| 5 | Paul Adrian Beecroft | Private Equity | £537,076 |
| 6 | James Lyle | Hedge Fund | £500,000 |
| 7 | Jonathan Wood | Hedge Fund | £500,000 |
| 8 | Peter J Hall | Investment Fund | £493,540 |
| 9 | George M Magan | Banker & Investment Fund | £485,000 |
| 10 | Paul Ruddock | Hedge Fund | £465,000 |
| TOTAL | £13,165,623 |
February 9th, 2011 at 5:18 pm (#)
Wow, all 10 still add up to less than the £16 million donated by Lord Sainsbury to the Labour Party.