17-02-2007, 08:47 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,438
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UKIP, the Wheelers and the LSE family dinner
It looks like major donor Stuart Wheeler has been getting some grief off his daughter regarding his talks with Nigel Farage. On David Cameron Wheeler had to say 'In fact, I would very much want him to be prime minister. It's just I am keen to see us taking a tougher stand over Europe' - so nothing anti-Tory or seriously anti-EU then. I guess we'll see donors reveal their true colours when the next major election draws ever nearer and closer.
http://news.independent.co.uk/people...cle2274454.ece
Quote:
Wheeler taken to task over Ukip 'dithering'
By Oliver Duff
Published: 16 February 2007
* While the Labour Party's accountants might justifiably drink each evening away in a Millbank boozer, Tory bean counters can toast recent successes - notably the £30m sale of their old HQ, filling a chasm in the books, and last week's Black and White Ball, which raised £600,000.
The Conservatives' uber-donor Stuart Wheeler has recently given them cause for jitters, however. Last month it was reported that the spread-betting squillionaire, who previously enriched the Conservative coffers to the tune of about £5m, was considering decamping to the Eurosceptics at Ukip.
I hear that his politically minded youngest daughter, Charlotte, 22, was so concerned this week that Dad was about to disembark from the David Cameron express that she held an emergency dinner summit at the family home in Mayfair, wheeling in a crowd of New Blues to persuade Wheeler to stick with Dave C.
"Charlotte is at LSE and she brought a few of her friends from there around for supper on Tuesday evening," Wheeler tells me. "Some were Europhile, some were Eurosceptics. [Tory donor] Rodney Leach was also there, and we had a civilised debate.
"Unfortunately, however, I am still dithering over what to do. This has absolutely nothing to do with David Cameron. In fact, I would very much want him to be prime minister. It's just I am keen to see us taking a tougher stand over Europe."
Ukip leader Nigel Farage, whom Wheeler dined two months ago, is "highly impressive and articulate".
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