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Financial backer Just Stop Oil, who used his company to donate to the Labor Party during the pandemic, called for £300,000
Dale Vince used his company Ecotricity to donate £770,000 to Labor during the coronavirus pandemic, including £10,000 paid directly to Angela Rayner.
>During the same period, the company was paid £309,000 in taxpayer-funded grants under the coronavirus job retention scheme, which was designed to keep businesses afloat.
Mr. Vince was called upon to return the money he claimed. between 2020 and 2022, according to government sources, he could not have needed support payments if he had extra money to donate to political causes.
“The purpose of the vacation was to help people work rather than let companies donate to Labour,” a Treasury source told The Telegraph. Sir Keir Starmer should also ask himself if this was an appropriate use of vacation funds and return the donation.”
Mr. Vince, 61, is a successful energy entrepreneur and chairman of the Forest Green Rovers Football Club. .
According to the company's latest annual report, it uses Ecotricity to support a range of «companies and organizations that share our values.»
These organizations include the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Vegan Society.
Last year, Mr Vince said he donated «about £10,000» to Just Stop Oil, a protest group that has made roads and sporting events accessible to the public. stalemate when it was created in February 2022.
“I support their goals and I really don’t care what they do as long as it’s non-violent protests,” he said in the podcast.
< p>Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, has joined Vince's calls to return the money his company paid during the pandemic.
He said: “Covid support payments were meant to help companies survive. They were not intended to covertly finance political parties. Ecotricity must urgently pay taxpayers and finance its policies out of its own pocket.”
Public Accounts Committee MPs have previously complained that the Treasury hasn't scrutinized closely whether firms demanding money from the layoff scheme are really needed. this.
Dame Meg Hillier, the Labor Party chairman of the committee, said that while «the money that really saved jobs and households was taken out remarkably quickly…too many companies have said it shouldn't have been done and now they won't get it back.»
It is not known if Vince used Ecotricity to donate to Just Stop Oil or paid them personally.
Neither the protest group nor the Labor Party appears on the company's online «partners» list, although documents filed with the Electoral Commission show that it paid £1.5 million to Labor between 2015 and 2022.
Greg Hands, chairman of the Conservative Party, urged the Labor Party to return the donations in light of Mr Vince's connection to Just Stop Oil.
«I'm concerned about the impact of this money given the Labor Party's decision to vote against tougher measures to end the unrest.» through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act,” he wrote in a letter to party chairman Annalize Dodds.
«I note that the Labor Party has already caved in to the group's demands and announced a halt to new oil, gas and coal projects.»
In recent weeks, Just Stop Oil has disrupted the World Snooker Championship and the Chelsea Flower, as well as staged promotions to protest 'slow walking' on main roads to cause traffic jams.
In a statement to The Telegraph, Mr Vince said: to save jobs and ensure we stay in business. This is one of the few things this government has done right during the pandemic.
“We have been giving money to Labor for many years, we have done this before and after the layoff scheme – and we will do it again. I firmly believe that only Labor can sort out the mess that successive Tory governments have created for our country and economy.» Labor was «naked politics» with no «moral or legal basis».
Labor declined to comment.
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