Jeremy Hosking: Former Conservative donor revealed as major backer of Brexit Party
Jeremy Hosking previously donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Brexit-backing Tory MP candidates at the 2017 election.
Monday 13 May 2019 10:05, UK
A businessman who has previously donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Conservative Party has been confirmed as a major financial backer of the Brexit Party.
Jeremy Hosking was one of a number of donors who have donated large sums of money to Nigel Farage's new party, a spokesman for the Brexit Party told Sky News.
Last weekend, leader Mr Farage told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday that a single donor had given more than £100,000 to the party, but did not reveal his identity, saying it would happen after the EU parliament elections later this month.
The party spokesman would not confirm however that Mr Hosking was the mystery donor who gave that huge single donation.
The millionaire businessman donated £1.5m to Vote Leave in 2016, and donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Brexit-backing Conservative MP candidates in the 2017 general election.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Hosking said he decided to start donating to the Brexit Party because he was getting sick of being "taken in" by the Conservatives who were failing to deliver on Brexit.
He added he knew of more Conservative donors who have given similar sorts of sums to the Brexit Party.
Mr Hosking said he had given £200,000 over the last few weeks, with the last sum being donated on Wednesday, after confirmation the UK would be taking part in EU elections.
Talking about the Brexit Party leader, he told The Telegraph: "I look at Nigel Farage and I see a political leader who is the only person in a leadership position who has been telling us the truth for 25 years."
:: Listen to Sophy Ridge on Sunday on , , ,
Back in December, Mr Hosking told Sky News he thought that remaining in the EU would be better than Theresa May's deal.
He added that "with Mrs May's deal we will have lost Article 50, we'll be in a customised straitjacket with the EU, whereas if we were to remain we could look at the whole thing from a fresh standpoint".