Tory banker with £135m wealth gets £144,000 in subsidies for Highland estate he owns through a tax haven
A major Tory donor is receiving huge European Union subsidies for a Scottish estate owned through an offshore tax haven.
Controversial multimillionaire banker Henry Angest got £144,140 of taxpayers’ cash over 2015 and 2016 alone for the Ashmore and Strone estates in Perthshire.
Records obtained by the Sunday Mail show the farming land was transferred to a Jersey-registered firm called Rora Investments Ltd in the 1990s.
But Angest, 77, whose personal wealth is estimated to be more than £135million, is the owner of Ashmore and Strone – a British company who benefit from the vast EU handouts.
He received £ 57,614.71 in 2016 and £ 86,526.26 in 2015 through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with similar amounts understood to have been handed over in other years.
Angest, the chairman and chief executive of Arbuthnot Banking Group, has channelled £ 411,500 to the Conservatives since the EU referendum.
He received a knighthood “for political service” in 2015 despite his bank being behind Everyday L oa n s , a firm charging an average 74 per cent APR. In total, he has given about £7million to the Tories in cash and loans over the years through his firms, including support for the party in Scotland.
He has been reported to be in favour of Brexit despite being