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A multi-millionaire former Conservative party donor says he stopped giving them money and switched to Labor because he felt they were “torn apart by arrogance and complacency”.
Tycoon Gareth Quarry told Sky News’ Beth Rigby Interviews show that he had come to a “gradual realization that inequality in this country is more and more visible” and he “can’t just sit back and be in a very privileged position”. .
The 63-year-old businessman recently donated £100,000 to Labor and joined the party as a member, having previously given tens of thousands of pounds to the Conservatives under David Cameron and Theresa May.
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Mr Quarry said the turning point was Boris Johnson and “the realization that some politicians are in it for themselves – personal aggrandizement, personal career advancement, what’s going to get me into Checkers and Number 10 fastest”.
In his first TV interview since joining Labour, he said: “In difficult times you have to put the interests of the country first.
“So I had to do something very radical, which will no doubt make me a pariah in a number of areas, but you have to do the right thing.”
Mr Quarry, a Remain supporter, also attacked the former prime minister David Cameron, saying he was “no doubt” pleased with the seriousness of calling the EU referendum as he believed he could win it.
He said: “The Tory party is torn apart by arrogance and complacency.
“I sat in rooms with the best group of donors.
“I’m a Bedford boy, I felt completely out of it. There were people running huge great companies. There were people who were born with many silver spoons in their mouths. I am not like that.”
Explaining his donations to the Conservative Party under Mr Cameron, Mr Quarry said he was “concerned in the run-up to Brexit” and wanted to “get in the room” to make a case.
He said invitations to events “were linked to the amount you gave in a year” and he attended lunches and dinners with cabinet ministers and the former prime minister.
However, he said he “doesn’t see it as paying for access or influence” and that he believes “in what the party and the wing of the party are trying to do”.
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On joining Labour, Mr Quarry said the party under Sir Keir Starmer “is a centre-left alliance” while the Tories under Liz Truss “have drifted to the right”.
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He said he would have made a “fortune” from the Prime Minister’s “farcical” tax-cutting mini-budget but “didn’t want that”.
“If I can’t pay more than my fair share as a rich man, then what hope is there?”
“I have to carry a bigger load on my back because there are people who have not seen any change in their lives in the last 15 years and are in despair.
The father-of-four insisted his switch to Labor was “not such a dramatic change” as he had “always believed society should be fair”.
He said his donation to Labor, made jointly with his wife Jill, was his way of “giving back to the country” and he wanted nothing from it “other than a right-thinking government”.
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