One of the Conservative’s biggest donors is reportedly pulling his funding over the party’s stance on gay marriage.
According to a Tory insider who spoke with the Daily Mail, billionaire Michael Hintze said he was “deeply upset” by the Tories’ “promotion” of same-sex marriage.
Hintze is said to want his £2.5 million loan to the party back because he would have also liked to have seen “a more radical economic agenda”.
Fed up
“Michael is fed up with David Cameron and George Osborne and doesn’t see why he should prop up the party any longer.
“He is deeply upset with the party’s promotion of gay marriage; it grates with his Catholicism”, the insider said.
In addition to his loan, the 60-year-old hedge fund manager has also donated around £4 million to the party.
Biggest donors
Daily Mail columnist, Sebastian Shakespeare, says Hintze’s announcement comes “just as the party needs a fortune” to bankroll the 2015 General Election.
His net loans and donations reportedly make him one of the biggest donors to the Conservative party.
Hintze heads up a fund worth £12.6 billion and has in the past also given senior Tory ministers individual donations and gifts.
Allegiance
Hintze – worth over one billion pounds according to Forbes – is not the first donor to withdraw allegiance.
In November, The Daily Telegraph reported that Conservative donors were “flocking” to Ukip.
The biggest “defecting donor” according to the paper was Stuart Wheeler, who on previous occasions donated around £4 million to the Conservatives.
Defectors
Wheeler is now the Ukip treasurer and has reportedly given £300,000 to the party.
Other defectors include self-made tycoon, Paul Sykes, who backed the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and Michael Howard, but has given £1.5 million to Ukip.
The Daily Mail’s insider did not allude to which party Hintze may support instead of the Conservatives.