More Charlbury related news .... (Debate)

Sun 1 Oct 2023, 21:21

Numbers 32 and 33 in The New Statesman’s right power list

The 50 most influential people shaping Britain’s conservative politics.

32 Isabel OakeshottAuthor and commentator

Oakeshott, 49, is not afraid to make enemies. Earlier this year she passed more than 100,000 of Matt Hancock’s Covid-era WhatsApp messages to the Daily Telegraph. Many journalists had questioned why the anti-lockdown commentator had collaborated with the former health secretary on his Pandemic Diaries – it turned out Oakeshott was playing a long game. The former Sunday Times deputy political editor, now TalkTV’s international editor, has emerged as one of the most vehement right-wing critics of the Conservatives (her partner is Reform UK leader Richard Tice). “The speed and depth of national decline is breathtaking,” Oakeshott recently tweeted. 

33 Lord BamfordJCB chair and Conservative donor

Lord Bamford, the JCB chairman, collects cars and politicians. His store of vintage Ferraris generally gets more attention than him having corralled both David Cameron and Boris Johnson on visits to his huge factories in India. Between 2007 and 2017, JCB and related Bamford entities donated £8.1m in cash or kind to the Conservative Party (his net worth is £5.9bn).

Bamford, 77, was a Brexiteer, and withdrew JCB from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in 2016 over its pro-EU stance. It was good news for Johnson, whose party was given a £3.9m donation by Bamford in 2019. The depth of his support for Johnson was shown when the former prime minister held his wedding party at the Bamford estate in the Cotswolds in July last year. He is also the owner, alongside his wife, Carole Bamford, of the Daylesford Organic shops and brand.