Desperate Rishi Sunak was reduced to flogging tickets for male strippers in a last-ditch bid to raise election cash.
The Tories sold off access to senior ministers – including the Prime Minister himself – while they still can, as wealthy donors bid in a fundraising auction to bolster party coffers at the Conservative Summer Party.
Wealthy donors paid tens of thousands of pounds for privileged access senior ministers – including the Prime Minister himself – while they still in a fundraising auction to bolster party coffers at the Conservative Summer Party.
The bash, held at London’s exclusive Hurlingham Club, saw megabucks party backers bid for lunch with Kemi Badenoch, tipped by many to be the next Tory leader.
Dinners with Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride and Jacob Rees-Mogg were also up for grabs, as was an evening with the Chief Whip – whoever that is after the election.
The soiree with Mr Stride is thought to have sold for just £1,100.
A collection of vintage Downing Street posters, signed by Mr Sunak and handed to the winner in person was sold for £30,000.
The lot specified that the handover will take place before election day – meaning the winner will get personal access to Mr Sunak while he is still Prime Minister.
A framed print of the Foreign Office personally signed by nine living Conservative Foreign Secretaries and handed over at a private reception with Lord Cameron sold for £20,000.
A political night in with Michael Gove, radio host Iain Dale and top Rishi Sunak advisor James Forsyth – to take place at the winner’s house – went for £25,000. And a private box for the First Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall with Penny Mordaunt and 9 others was auctioned for £20,000.
The first item in the auction was four tickets to see Magic Mike live in London – with an opening bid of £750.
Mr Sunak himself failed to appear at the lavish soiree, because he was in York appearing on the BBC Question Time leaders’ special – and being heckled and laughed at by audience members.
But his deputy, Oliver Dowden was seen driving into the event. Mr Gove and beleaguered party chairman Richard Holden – who was predicted to lose the “safe” seat he’s been parachuted into in a bombshell poll this week – also attended.
Donors attending Thursday’s lavish soiree were served a 2022 Domaine Roger Thibault Pouilly-Fume Sauvignon Blanc white wine, worth £21 a bottle, and a 2018 Chateau Teyssier Saint Emilion worth £18.75 a bottle over dinner.
The meal opened with chicken and black truffle galentine, with walnut and apricot crumb, or a beetroot carpaccio for vegetarians.
They tucked into a main course of grilled sea bass, served with polenta cake, asparagus and semi-dried tomato. The vegetarian option was a wild mushroom and truffle tart with baby vegetables and carrot puree.
And the meal was topped off with a cholocate and tofu marquise with chocolate cookie crumbs and passion fruit sorbet.
The menu was described as “Simple. Nothing too exciting” by one attendee.
Ahead of the event, one major party donor told the Mirror the mood among his fellow party backers was “lousy.”