Donor of the Week: JCB and the Bamford Brothers
Author: Jon Narcross
Published on Oct 18, 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:
- Sir Anthony and Mark Bamford are the two sons of Joseph C. Bamford founder of JCB
- The JCB group of companies includes, Bamford Industries, JCB Ltd, JCB Excavators, JCB Research and JCB World Brands
- Sir Anthony is the current Chairman of JCB Ltd having taken over from his father in 1990
- Sir Anthony was made a CBE in 2000 and awarded a Knighthood in 2003
- The Bamford brothers are reportedly worth over £2 billion pounds between them
Business and Philanthropy:
- The JCB group has over 18 factories world wide and employs over 7000 staff to manufacture its products which sell in over 150 countries
- In 2010 the JCB Academy Trust opened the JCB Academy in Rocester, specialising in Engineering diplomas
Donations:
- Nearly £2million has been donated to the Conservative and Unionist Party since 2001 by JCB research – a company within the JCB group.
- The company has also made total donations of over £20,000 to individual MPs such as George Osborne, Ian Duncan Smith and Nick Herbert.
- Sir Anthony has also funded individual campaigns such as No to AV and Boris Johnson’s 2008 Mayoral Campaign with donations totalling of £40,000
Controversy:
- Whilst on a recent foreign trip, the Prime Minister caused controversy by opening a new JCB factory, due to his perceived close financial ties with Sir Anthony and the JCB group
- Despite having donated over £2million to the Conservative Party, JCB Research, a private company within JCB, which has never formally filed accounts, is reportedly worth only £27,000
- In 2010 JCB Research was one of the biggest donors to the Conservatives in the run up to the 2010 general election
- The company has reportedly been the subject of a bitter 13 year dispute between Sir Anthony and his brother Mark over it’s ownership and the control of Mark’s shares in the business
- Sir Anthony was due to be nominated by David Cameron for a peerage in 2010 but declined the honour just days before its announcement allegedly after questions were raised about his tax affairs
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