Leading Tory Backer Switches To Brexit Party.

Leading Conservative backer switches support to Brexit party City financier Jeremy Hosking is  an investor in the Flybe airline. The Brexit party declined to comment on how much he had donated .

 One of the UK Conservative party’s most prominent financial backers has switched to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party in a sign of the growing disenchantment among Tory donors with Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to leave the EU on schedule. Jeremy Hosking, a prominent City of London financier and investor in the Flybe airline, has donated to Mr Farage’s party after expressing an interest in funding a new pro-Brexit group to see through Britain’s exit from the EU. The financier is the first notable Brexit party donor to be named. A spokesperson said: “Jeremy Hosking has contributed to the Brexit party but, for the moment, has nothing further to add.” The party confirmed it had received his donation. Mr Hosking has supported a number of Eurosceptic causes, and offered financial backing to 140 pro-Brexit Tory MPs at the last general election. He donated £100,000 to the Tories in the 2015 general election and gave £1.7m to the largely Conservative- backed Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 EU referendum. On March 29 2019, the day Britain was due to leave the EU, Mr Hosking ran the “Brexit Express” steam train from Swansea in Wales to Sunderland in the north-east of England, marking “the UK’s exit (or non-exit) from the European Union”. Guests along for the ride included former Brexit secretary David Davis and former Brexit minister Steve Baker. Financial Times.