Big donor Anthony Bamford rides two tractors at once

Is billionaire businessman Anthony Bamford riding two diggers at once? The JCB chairman has just handed £200,000 each to the Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on the rationale both parties “believe in small business”.

In addition, Bamford gave another £50,000 to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch – donated specifically for the running of her office as leader of the opposition, rather than the wider Tory party – which follows a previous £150,000 in June. The local party of shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith – not short of a bob or two himself, the former Sky executive’s £9.5 million London townhouse being used as the HQ for Boris Johnson’s 2019 Tory leadership campaign – also declared a £25,000 donation from JCB this week.

Bamford was elevated to the peerage by David Cameron in 2013, but retired from the House of Lords last year. While his sizeable wallet failed to open for Rishi Sunak, he backed Johnson with around £3 million in donations while he was leader, while also supporting Liz Truss’s leadership campaign. He later hosted Johnson’s most recent wedding.

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It’s all small change as Bamford’s family’s net worth was put at £9.45 billion in the most recent Sunday Times Rich List. JCB recently returned a £687 million pre-tax profit on £5.8 billion in turnover, handing £866 million in dividend pay to Bamford Family Interests via parent firm JCB Group Holdings Sarl, incorporated in Switzerland.

Although Bamford had not previously donated to Reform before, JCB was an official exhibitor at its party conference in September, and Farage arrived at the launch of his local election campaign in March on one of the firm’s pothole repairing machines. Bamford also forked out for an £8,000 helicopter trip for Farage last year.

So whoever wins the existential battle for Britain’s right, Bamford’s on their side!