Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Green cash bonanza for Tory donor
Millions for bus firm boss who gave £74k
BY
A TORY donor whose father lends Boris Johnson his helicopter has won millions of pounds in government green cash.
Jo Bamford, son of JCB boss Lord Bamford, has set himself up in the hydrogen fuel industry – which will be big business at next month’s COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow.
The self-styled “green entrepreneur” bought collapsed bus-maker Wrightbus in 2019 and set up his own Bamford Bus Company.
The firm has since landed a share of £700million-worth of contracts from government bodies to supply hydrogen buses.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced in March that Wrightbus had been awarded an £11.2million grant to develop new hydrogen technology. And Mr Bamford has been pressing for another £500million of taxpayers’ cash to finance a 3,000-strong fleet of hydrogen buses produced by firms like his.
Asked if he’d personally lobbied Mr Johnson, Mr Bamford said last year: “Of course I speak to people in the Government but I haven’t spoken to Boris. He’s the Prime Minister – he’s way above my pay grade.”
While there is no suggestion of improper conduct, Tom Brake, director of the Unlock Democracy campaign group, told the Sunday Mirror last night: “As long as donors are allowed to gift huge amounts of cash to MPs and political parties, and MPs can switch seamlessly between being the lucky recipient of a donation or a paid consultancy role and a ministerial position, questions will be asked.
ACCESS
“Until a cap on donations is introduced – Unlock Democracy is calling for £5,000 per year – there is going to be doubt about whether grants or contracts were won fair and square.”
Lord Bamford and his family have handed at least £10million in cash and gifts to the Conservatives since 2001 and son Jo has given £74,854 since 2019. His donations include gifts
to constituencies of MPs who are now ministers, including new Energy Secretary George Freeman. A year ago, Mr Freeman entered into a contract to offer “strategic advice” to another of Mr Bamford’s firms, Ryze Hydrogen, which invests in facilities that make the fuel cells to power buses.
The contract was scrapped and payments returned after Mr Freeman was reported for a breach of the ministerial code for failing to inform a Parliamentary watchdog.
Tory Julian Smith, the ex-Chief Whip, is a £60,000-a-year adviser for Ryze. And a new £45m hydrogen production facility is set to open up a cloe to the COP26 conference – with Ryze as a major partner.
The Government’s Hydrogen Strategy predicts the industry will be worth £13billion to the economy by 2050. Last year Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was “very, very keen that we push hydrogen”. Industry magazine Passenger Transport said that came after “sustained lobbying” from Mr Bamford,
While the businessman has thrown his lot into green investments, his digger mogul father still has a fleet of aircraft. And the PM has come under fire for using helicopters and jets lent to him by Lord Bamford for campaign visits.
Before May’s local elections and the Hartlepool by-election, Mr Johnson is understood to have used a Gulfstream 650 jet to fly from Farnborough, Hants, to Wales and the North East.
The same month he used a Bamford-registered chopper on a 50-minute flight from London to Wolverhampton – saving just over an hour compared to taking the train.
A Tory spokeman said: “Government policy is in no way influenced by donations the party receives. Fundraising is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is more taxpayer-funding of political campaigning, which would mean less money for frontline services like schools, police and hospitals.”
Questions will be asked as long as donors are allowed to gift huge sums to MPs TOM BRAKE OF THE UNLOCK DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN GROUP