Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.
The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the firm “as I understand it… is a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.
Politics Live: Tory leadership candidates faced questions on Sky News
Mr Jenrick spoke to Sky News alongside the three other rivals to replace Rishi Sunak, as the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham kicks off.
During the interviews, Kemi Badenoch said she is a fighter and if someone takes a swing at her “I will swing back”.
Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat defended his “posh boy public school background”, saying his military service has given him leadership skills, while former Home Secretary James Cleverly refused to name any of the previous four Tory prime ministers as being to blame for the party’s general election defeat, saying the public “don’t like infighting”.
Jenrick says donations ‘valid’
Asked about the donations from The Spott Fitness, which have been declared on his MPs’ register of interests, Mr Jenrick said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.
“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”
Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said the details would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way” and he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company”.
“What people are criticising Labour for is actually rather different,” he added.
“Labour are being criticised for their rank hypocrisy that they spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”
The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week was overshadowed by a donation and freebies row, after it emerged Sir Keir Starmer accepted over £100,000 in gifts since 2019.
Questions have been raised in particular over the large amount given by Labour peer and TV executive Lord Waheed Alli, who had a pass to Number 10 for a short time in order to attend meetings, the government said.
Starmer has been criticised for accepting freebies. Pic: Reuters
The Conservatives are now gathering in Birmingham since their worst defeat at the ballot box in history at the July general election.
Jenrick backs ‘cast iron cap’ on migration
Mr Jenrick, currently the frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak, said his party made “serious mistakes” and failed to deliver.
He is pitching himself as a “change” candidate, telling Trevor Phillips he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) in order to get the failed £700m Rwanda asylum scheme up and running, and introduce a cap on migration.
Asked what distinguished this from previous efforts to lower immigration, he said the cap would be “legally binding…cast in iron so that this time it will happen”.
“I want to set that (cap) in the tens of thousands or lower”, he said.
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‘I will swing back’
Badenoch: ‘If you swing at me I will swing back’
Mr Jenrick faces competition on the right from Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips, she defended an Op-ed in The Daily Telegraph in which she criticised a recent rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.
Asked if she was referring to Muslims, she said: “It is not all Muslim immigrants…but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two.”
The combative shadow housing secretary also insisted she doesn’t go looking for fights, when asked about rows with the likes of Doctor Who star David Tennant, but said that she will “swing back” if provoked.
The North West Essex MP said: “Why is it that people worry about someone who talks back? They don’t like it when women talk back, they don’t like it when politicians talk back.
“I will talk back, I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.”
She added: “I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.”