Boris Johnson Leads Funding Battle in U.K. Tory Leadership Race

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If all that mattered in U.K. politics was money, Boris Johnson would be a shoo-in to succeed Theresa May as Conservative Party Leader and prime minister.

The former Foreign Secretary has raised 158,000 pounds ($206,000) in personal donations and gifts to his local constituency party since the 2017 general election, when May’s leadership became an open question after she lost her majority.

The haul for Johnson, one of the key faces of the Brexit campaign, is more than double that raised by his nearest rivals. Environment Secretary Michael Gove had reaped 71,500 pounds and former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab 69,000 pounds by April 1, according to Bloomberg analysis of data from the Electoral Commission and the U.K. Parliament’s Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

The prize for May’s successor is far greater than just the party leadership. They will take on the premiership and the chance to shape the U.K.’s economic ties with its closest neighbors after Brexit.

While no politicians have formally announced their candidacy, Johnson, Raab and Gove are all among more than a dozen names tipped by their colleagues and the U.K. Media as considering bids.

May has clung on for 22 months since the disastrous 2017 election campaign and is unlikely to last much longer. She fired the starting gun on a leadership contest when she told Tory MPs last month that she’ll stand aside after she’s secured Parliamentary agreement for her EU withdrawal deal.

Gove Torpedo

Johnson, the former mayor of London, has long harbored ambitions to be prime minister and only dropped out of the 2016 contest that saw May take the top job after one-time ally Gove torpedoed his campaign.

Johnson not only outguns his opponents in fundraising, but also in earnings. Aside from his MP’s annual salary of 79,468 pounds, in the past 22 months he has earned a shade over half a million pounds from book royalties, speaking engagements and media articles -- including his regular column for the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Of the contenders to be the U.K.’s third female prime minister after May and Margaret Thatcher, former Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey has raised the most: 66,387 pounds, all of it through her local Conservative party in Tatton.

McVey’s successor in the pensions job, Amber Rudd, comes in fifth on 49,000 pounds. Rudd has a wafer-thin majority of 346 in her Hastings & Rye constituency and has been touted in recent months as a kingmaker rather than contender for the top job. Her donations include a 2,000-pound gift from former Vodafone Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Christopher Gent.

Some 138,00 pounds of Johnson’s donations have come since October, including 29,000 pounds from construction machinery manufacturer JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. He also received 23,000 pounds of loans and gifts from CTF Partners Ltd., the polling company co-founded by Lynton Crosby, who ran both of Johnson’s successful mayoral campaigns. Johnson’s constituency party has also been given 10,000 pounds by hedge fund manager Michael Hintze.

Raab Snowballing

Gove’s disloyalty scuppered his own chances in 2016, but his fundraising suggests he may fancy his chances this time. His donations include 10,000 pounds apiece from two social clubs for wealthy Conservatives: the Magna Carta Club and Strangers Gallery Dining Club.

Raab’s operation has snowballed in recent weeks. Last month, he said Arbuthnot Banking Group had given him "the services of a member of staff for my Westminster office for six months” valued at 44,259 pounds. And in February he received "communications support" worth 6,480 pounds from Melior Advisors Ltd.

Three female cabinet ministers touted as leadership contenders -- Penny Mordaunt, Andrea Leadsom and Liz Truss -- all reported no donations.

They’re not the only ones playing catchup. Home Secretary Sajid Javid received 23,000 pounds, mainly through his local party, and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is on 24,000 pounds -- though that includes a donation in his name to his local party. The independently wealthy Hunt has a property portfolio that includes shares in a house in Italy, an office block in London and seven apartments in Southampton.

Trifling Sums

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has raised 31,000 pounds, including 12,000 pounds for a mobile phone app. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson’s local party has received 10,000 pounds; former International Development Secretary Priti Patel 6,500 pounds, and Conservative Party Deputy Chairman James Cleverly -- one of the few Tories to openly admit he’d like to lead the party -- has raised 3,645 pounds through his local party.

The sums are trifling in comparison to campaigns in U.S. politics. That’s in part because Tory leadership contests are unlike the U.S. candidacy races in which contenders criss-cross the country spending millions of dollars in state-by-state electoral battles. Instead, their focus for the first phase of the contest is an electorate of just 313: the party’s Members of Parliament.

Costs incurred by candidates are likely to include hiring venues to launch their campaign, staffing costs, and leaflets and advertising.

After MPs have whittled down the candidates to two, they will then take their arguments to the party grassroots. While the Conservatives don’t disclose how many members they have, at the time of the last leadership election in 2016, it was estimated at about 150,000.

--With assistance from Robert Hutton.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny

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