WOW - real MSEers

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

The 10 richest Tories in the shadow cabinet



There has been mounting speculation in recent months about the personal wealth of the leading figures in the Conservative Party. Interest has heightened after the Tories announced that they would implement an austerity budget, slashing public services, if elected to Government. Research carried out last year by the News of the World recorded 19 millionaires in the Shadow Cabinet, giving some indication of the level of wealth at the top of the Conservative Party. Here Times Money has updated the list. The figures for personal wealth are estimates calculated by the NOTW team in 2008.

1 Lord Strathclyde - £10 million


The Leader of Opposition in House of Lords owns a million-pound pad in central London among other investments and also has a stake in Auchendrane Estates, a property management company worth £6 million. Thomas Strathclyde, 49, was born in Glasgow and speaks fluent French and studied at the Universities of East Anglia, and Aix-en-Provence in south of France.
2 Philip Hammond - £9 million


The Shadow Treasury Chief Secretary has an unconfirmed stake in a property investment company called Castlemead Ltd. He and his wife Susan also own a house in Belgravia, Central London, which they bought for about £1m and is now valued at around £1.5m, according to the News of the World.
3 George Osborne - £4.3 million


Mr Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, went to St Paul's School in London and then Oxford University, where he was a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club. He has a home in Notting Hill, West London, valued at well over a million pounds and a constituency property worth an estimated half a million. He is also due to inherit a substantial stake in Osborne & Little, the wallpaper and fabric company set up by his father.
4 Jeremy Hunt - £4.1 million


The Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media & Sport owns almost half of educational guide publisher Hotcourses and has a property in leafy Farnham, Surrey. Jeremy’s first sporting interest was cross-country running at school. He now prefers to indulge in some Latin dancing – lambada is apparently his favourite - although he rarely has the time.
5 David Cameron - £3.2 million


The Conservative Party Leader went to Eton and then Oxford, where he joined the Bullingdon Club with Mr Osborne and Boris Johnston, the London Mayor. Mr Cameron and his wife stand to inherit a fortune. Samantha's mum is the successful businesswoman Viscountess Astor. Her dad is Sir Robert Sheffield, majority shareholder of Normanby Estate Holdings, worth £5.2m. David's father and grandfather were stockbrokers.
6 Dominic Grieve - £3.1 million
The Shadow Secretary of State for Justice was a barrister and ex-member of insurer Lloyds of London. He owns a £1.2m home in West London, plus a rental property in the City, and is part-owner of land in France.
7 Francis Maude - £3 million


The Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has properties in West Sussex, France and South London.
8 William Hague - £2.2 million
The Shadow Foreign Secretary has made an estimated £780,000 from after-dinner speeches in recent years - he reportedly earns up to £10,000 for one appearance - and was paid at least £220,000 as director of several private companies. The MP also owns property worth more than £1 million.
9 Andrew Mitchell - £2 million
The Shadow Secretary for International Development was a director at a merchant bank before becoming an MP in 2001. Mr Mitchell is still a director of Lazard & Co. He also earns £40,000 a year as senior strategy adviser to Accenture and has shareholdings in all three companies.
10 David Willetts - £1.9 million
The Member of Parliament for Havant since 1992 and Shadow Minister for Universities and Skills, with special responsibility for family policy. He has worked at HM Treasury, the Number 10 Policy Unit, and served as Paymaster General in the last Conservative Government.
Other senior Conservative figures
Lord Ashcroft - £1.1 billion The Conservative Party deputy chairman
Michael Spencer - £250 million The Conservative Party treasurer






http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2009/11/10-wealthiest-tories.html

Graham_Devon

So what are you saying?

Don't vote for them because they are rich?

I'll vote for who I think will run the country best, thanks

abaxas

Ahem ahem...

Tony Blair?

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Graham_Devon wrote: »

So what are you saying?

Don't vote for them because they are rich?

I'll vote for who I think will run the country best, thanks

No don't vote for them because they don't have your interests at heart. They are pulling the wool over your eyes my friend....

Harry_Powell

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote: »

No don't vote for them because they don't have your interests at heart. They are pulling the wool over your eyes my friend....

LOL, and Labour haven't? :rotfl:

Graham_Devon

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote: »

No don't vote for them because they don't have your interests at heart. They are pulling the wool over your eyes my friend....

Would that be like a promised referendum? Or a promised election?

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Would that be like a promised referendum? Or a promised election?

Are you referring to the only promise Cameron ever made - that he would have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? The ONLY promise and he has reneged on it .....

Generali

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote: »

Are you referring to the only promise Cameron ever made - that he would have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? The ONLY promise and he has reneged on it already.....

First I doubt that's the only promise he's made.

Second he was very clear: he'd hold a referendum if by EU law he still could, that is the treaty hadn't been ratified and so become part of EU rules and UK law.

I realise that it's normal for Labour to support and pass laws that change things retrospectively but for decent parties that believe in Law and constitution and all that stuff it';s generally considered to be the stuff of fascism.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Generali wrote: »

Second he was very clear: he'd hold a referendum if by EU law he still could, that is the treaty hadn't been ratified and so become part of EU rules and UK law.

I realise that it's normal for Labour to support and pass laws that change things retrospectively but for decent parties that believe in Law and constitution and all that stuff it';s generally considered to be the stuff of fascism.

That's not what he said

This wooing was eased by a pledge from Cameron to the readers of the Sun that he would hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. "Today," wrote the Tory leader in September 2007 in an article he must bitterly regret, "I will give this cast-iron guarantee: if I become prime minister, a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations." To dramatically emphasise the point, he wrote his personal signature at the bottom. "Small wonder that so many people don't believe a word politicians ever say," added Cameron, "if they break their promises so casually."
This so called cast-iron guarantee sounded all well and good at the time it was made and Lisbon was only a hazy prospect. It's a different matter altogether now that Vaclav Klaus's heroic stand is over and the treaty is about to come into law. It remains open, of course, to David Cameron to honour the promise that he made to Sun readers. He could place the referendum pledge at the heart of the Tory general election manifesto, call and fight an anti-Lisbon campaign in the first 100 days of winning office. Many Tories yearn for him to do just that.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/01/peter-oborne-david-cameron

ruggedtoast

Britain has been run by the toffs as long as its been a country. The few chances the Labour party have had to take over havent been shining successes imo. Blair and then Brown have shown themselves to be just as capricious and venal as the Major government that predated them.

It doesnt matter who you vote for the government will always get in.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Generali wrote: »

First I doubt that's the only promise he's made.

It is widely reported that this is the only promise he has ever made. Find me another promise and then I might believe you over the papers...