Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has refused to deny reports that a major Conservative Party donor, Richard Harpin, has pulled his financial support, amid growing concerns about the party’s funding and electoral prospects ahead of the May local elections.
Mr Harpin, the multi-millionaire founder of HomeServe and the trades review platform Checkatrade, is reported to have paused his donations to the Conservative Party. The Guardian claimed on Monday that the withdrawal of his backing could threaten the closure of the party’s northern campaign headquarters in Leeds—a symbolic setback for a party that once championed its “levelling up” agenda in the North.
Harpin, a long-time Tory donor, is understood to have contributed over £270,000 in cash and non-cash donations to the Conservatives during the last quarter of 2024 alone. His reported decision to halt further donations comes at a precarious time for the party, which is facing mounting financial pressure and a challenging set of local elections on 1 May.
During a visit to a business near Salisbury, Badenoch was repeatedly asked whether Harpin had indeed pulled funding. While she insisted there were “many factual inaccuracies” in the newspaper’s report, she notably did not deny the central claim.
“I’m not going to make specific comments about individuals. I don’t think that is right,” she told reporters. “So right now, what I’m doing is making sure that we keep our costs down and that we build an organisation that is actually serving the British public.”
Pressed further on whether Harpin had stopped contributing, Badenoch reiterated: “As I said, I’m not discussing any specific individuals. The Conservative Party is fundraising, and we’re making sure that we’re using that money wisely in the service of the British public.”
Despite Badenoch’s attempts to play down the report, the timing of the alleged withdrawal of support from a prominent donor could not be more critical. The Conservatives are still reeling from a resounding general election defeat last summer, and recent polling suggests they are bracing for heavy losses in the upcoming local contests.
“The May local elections are going to be so challenging,” Badenoch admitted. She pointed to the political context of the last local elections in 2021, when the party enjoyed a boost in popularity during the so-called “vaccine bounce.”
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“We have to also look at the context of what happened four years ago, the last time we fought these seats, when we were polling at a high, winning seats that had never been Conservative before, like Hartlepool,” she said. “We had two-thirds of the votes during the vaccine bounce. So we know that this is a challenging set of elections.”
Figures released by the Electoral Commission show the Conservatives raised nearly £2 million in donations in the final three months of 2024, outperforming Labour’s £1 million and dwarfing Reform UK’s £280,000. However, the latest developments suggest that support from key financial backers may be wavering.
The potential closure of the Leeds campaign hub, which was part of the party’s effort to establish a stronger presence in the so-called “Red Wall” seats won during Boris Johnson’s 2019 landslide, would represent a significant reversal for a party once dominant across swathes of northern England.
Whether Harpin’s pause is temporary or a reflection of deeper unease among Conservative donors remains unclear. However, with an uphill battle ahead and waning public support, the Conservative Party now finds itself under renewed pressure to both restore trust and reassure its financial base.
