Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
ONE of the Tories’ biggest donors is involved in a 13.8m Euro (£12.4m) dispute with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over offshore cash.
Allirajah Subaskaran is the chairman and owner of mobile phone firm Lycamobile. He and his companies gave the Tories £2.1m between 2011 and 2016.
The latest accounts of the top company in his Lycamobile empire, which has the unusual name “WWW HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED” were released in March. They show his firm has increased the amount put aside to cover an ongoing tax dispute with HMRC by 3.4m Euro (£2.9m) for the latest year.
Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES
It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES
SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests


