Frank Hester is chief executive of The Phoenix Partnership
The Conservative Party has received £5m from the healthcare entrepreneur, its largest joint venture one-time donation over two decades.
The donation was made by Frank Hester, founder and CEO of Phoenix Partnership (TPP), a health technology company.
In an article for The Telegraph, explaining his decision, Mr. Hester says Rishi Sunak's «passion» for using new technologies to improve the NHS helped him make the donation.
He admits that some people may consider him «naive» for giving away so much money, as the Tories are far behind the Labor Party in opinion polls, but insists he believes in the party's health plans.
Recently, this donation is matched by another £5 million. donated by Mohamed Mansour, Egyptian-born billionaire.
Both are the Conservatives' largest individual donations since 2001, the date the party's internal database began.
Sir Paul Getty, a billionaire philanthropist, also donated £5 million to the party in 2001.
Biggest Tory donation < p>The financial upswing comes as the Tories prepare for the general election campaign, which is expected to be voted on in the fall of 2024.
The Conservatives have traditionally raised more donations than the Labor Party, and the size of Mrs. on Hester The size of the contribution is unmatched by the opposition.
The Labor Party has increased its donations from individuals, not unions, under Sir Keir Starmer since he took over from Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.
But even so, only in 2022 Labor raised just £2 million in individual donations, less than half of Hester's gift.
Mr. Hester refers to the experience of losing his father and the associated medical complications when he describes his interest in healthcare in his Telegraph article.
He writes: “When I was 28, my father had debilitating illness. lung disease, suffered a heart attack. He made it clear that if the worst happened, he would not want to be resuscitated.
«However, there was a terrible mix-up at the hospital, and the doctors, who did not have access to this key information in his medical file, returned him back.
“Then he spent four days in the hospital. in a coma on life support until my mother and I made the difficult decision to let him go.
“While I don’t blame anyone for this mistake, there is a mark deep inside me: to try to improve. way of providing healthcare in this country.»
Frank Hester with his father Michael
Mr. highlights the Prime Minister personally when discussing why he decided to support the Conservatives.
He writes: “Historically, I have never been particularly interested in politics — I used to vote for the Greens until I realized that they wanted to close M1!
“However, in Rishi Sunak, I see a person who shares my passion for using technology to allow frontline workers to spend more time caring for patients and ultimately revolutionize the way healthcare is delivered in the UK.
“I think he understands and appreciates the NHS and wants to solve some of her most pressing problems.”
However, critics are likely to jump on the involvement of his healthcare business and ask if that played a role in his decision to give the Tories that much money.
TPP is a private healthcare firm with at least one government contract worth $150 000 pounds sterling. It was revealed earlier this month that the company had donated a similar amount to the party.
At the time, a company spokesperson told The Mirror that it had published the story: «TPP strictly follows the guidelines of public industry contracts.
“As for the donations, they should have been made by Frank Hester in his personal capacity and not through a business. Mr. Hester repaid the company's debt in full. To be completely clear, the TPP is unequivocally apolitical.”
Mr Hester's company is based in Yorkshire, which is also where Mr Sunak's Richmond constituency is located.
On the Sunday Times Rich List this year, Mr Hester was ranked 321st with an estimated net worth of £415m.
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