Donor of the Week: Ministry of Sound Ltd
Author: Jack Maizels
Published on Jul 19, 2012
Our Donor of the Week series aims to shed some light on the people, companies and organisations who are funding our political parties. Each week, we’ll look at the chosen donor’s political involvement, their donation history and any controversy associated with their actions, and question whether this really is the best system for financing our politics.
Who they are:
- A limited company whose operations include a night club, a radio station and the largest independent record label in the world
- The night club was originally funded by co-founder and chairman James Palumbo, using £250,000 he had made through working in investment banking
- The firm is owned by MSHK Group Ltd, of which Palumbo is majority shareholder and chairman
- Palumbo was also a vice-chair of the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign during the run up to the 2011 referendum on AV
Donations:
- They have donated £97,378.13 to the Liberal Democrats in the first quarter of 2012
- Their first donation to the Party was in mid 2004, a sum of £10,000
- Further donations of around £10,000 followed in 2009 and 2010, before levels soared to £298,065.89 in 2011
- They also donated £11,000 over 2 donations in 2006 to Simon Hughes MP, who would go on to become the Party’s deputy leader
Controversy:
- In 2011, Ministry of Sound management and staff opposed a development of residential flats to be built near their London nightclub, due to fears that it could lead to noise complaints from residents and even shut the club down
- 250,000 people signed the company’s petition against the plans, though the local council planning officer did recommend they go ahead
- However, the three Liberal Democrat Councillors who voted against the planning proposal failed to declare more than £78,000 of donations from the Ministry of Sound to the local and national Party
- Their donations to the Lib Dems may not be too popular with those who attend their regular student club nights, as 28 Lib Dem MPs voted to treble student tuition fees in late 2010, breaking a personal pledge they signed before the general election months earlier
Notes:
- Date of the donation is the date the donation was accepted by the party
- Analysis refers to donations to main party, individual MPs, MEPs, local parties and affiliated groups, cash donations and non-cash donations
- Electoral Commission Donation Reports have only been available since 2001, and analysis does not consider any donations made before this point
- Variations of the same name e.g. Joe Bloggs, Mr Joe Bloggs, Sir J Bloggs, etc are all collated as the same donor
- Donations from companies that have moved address, changed name or have several subdivisions all making donations are also collated as the same donor, as are all previous forms of the same Trade Unions