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You rang, M'Lord?

SOLOMON HUGHES takes a look at the swanky concierge service and Tory Party donor with links to an exiled Russian oligarch

The Tories aren't just the party of the rich. They are the party of their butlers as well.

The latest list of party donations released by the Electoral Commission shows a £28k contribution to the Tories from a firm called Henley Concierge Ltd.

This firm offers "a highly professional and discreet service for private clients who require assistance to ensure every detail and plan is taken care of."

The Henley-based company offers help to "VVIPs" (Very Very Important People), including everything from "butler and valet" services "via canine grooming to private yachts."

A £25k donation entitles the firm to membership of the Conservative Party treasurer's group, whose "members are invited to join senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches."

So there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss the important busines of grooming rich people's dogs, arranging their private yachts and supplying their butlers with Cameron and Osborne.

The Henley Concierge donation also brings a man closely associated with an exiled Russian oligarch into close contact with the Tory government.

Austrian-born Mario Hinterdorfer owns Henley Concierge Ltd.

Hinterdorfer is also the personal assistant to exiled Russian oligarch Andrey Borodin, the president of the Bank of Moscow until 2011.

Vladimir Putin's Ministry of the Interior is pursuing Borodin, charging him with involvement in a 6 billion rouble (£114m) fraud on the Bank of Moscow, which was bailed out by the Russian state the same year Borodin was forced out of leadership.

Russian justice is often far from impressive, but auditor Deloitte has confirmed many of the loans made under Borodin's leadership were not properly authorised.

The Interpol notice issued against Borodin says he is sought for "aggravated swindling," a charge he firmly denies.

Borodin fled to Britain and bought Britain's most expensive house, the £140m Park Place country estate in Henley. He was reportedly granted asylum in March 2013.

I asked Henley Concierge if its donations were linked to Borodin but received no reply.

 

David Cameron wants to stop bad medical care of the sick, old and vulnerable by threatening doctors and nurses with a new "wilful neglect" law.

But his proposed law doesn't seem to affect the managers and owners of services where patients suffer.

Coincidentally, the latest list of Tory donors includes £50,000 from Ravi Gidar, owner of Gold Care Homes.

The majority of Gidar's 23 old folk's homes get good reports, but the most recent inspections by the Care Quality Commission found fault at five homes, with three particularly serious complaints.

Inspectors at their 49-bed Alan Morkill House in west London "observed that on one floor of the home people had been left unsupported with personal care for over four hours" and found that "there were not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs."

The company's 35-bed Newstead home in north London had repeated "compliance" visitors from inspectors in 2012-3 over issues including "cleanliness and infection control at the home and support given to workers" and "concerns over insufficient staffing levels at the home."

Finally, by August, Newstead did improve, although minor problems with medicine management persisted.

In September inspectors at its St Martin's House, a 60-bed home in Stevenage found some bedrooms "had very unpleasant odours. We also saw that the level of cleanliness in some areas of the home was not acceptable."

Fifty thousand pounds to the Tories buys Gidar membership of a Tory "donor club" called the leaders group.

According to the Tories' own website members are offered meetings with "David Cameron and other senior figures from the Conservative Party" for their money.

So the next time Cameron or his crew start talking about how they want to improve health and social services with more privatisation, remember that money talks.

And the money made from old people left "unsupported," cared for by homes with "insufficient staffing" and unaceptable uncleanliness has been paying for talks with team Cameron.

 

There are other ways to pay for an audience with the Tories.

Lord Ashcroft heads a very influential group called Conservative Home.

It runs a website which is very popular with grass-roots members and organises meetings at its own special marquee in the grounds of the Conference Centre at the Tory conference.

At this year's conference in Manchester, Lend Lease, an Australian multinational property developer, paid for that Conservative Home marquee.

So all the Tory ministers, including Iain Duncan Smith, Francis Maude and William Hague, who addressed meetings in the Conservative Home marquee did so amid leaflets and posters for Lend Lease.

The firm also paid for one special meeting on housing with Planning Minister Nick Boles alongside its own chief executive Simon Hipperson.

Lend Lease is currently facing a lot of criticism for its redevelopment of the Heygate estate, next to south London's Elephant and Castle.

A big council block of 2,300 flats and houses is going to be replaced with private flats selling at up to £380k each. Southwark Council sold the plot to Lend Lease for just £50 million, even though the council had spent over £60m emptying the existing tenants out of the place and preparing it for redevelopment.

The council says the redevelopment will include 25 per cent "affordable" hosuing - although most of that will be much more expensive than council housing.

None of these criticisms was heard at the Tory Conference, as the Lend Lease-funded marquee was full of glossy brochures and posters saying how the Heygate redevelopment is the best thing since sliced bread.

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