Boris Johnson took £24,000 in funding for wedding party from major Tory donor

Boris Johnson accepted nearly £24,000 worth of funding for his wedding party from a major Tory donor.

Lord Anthony and Lady Carole Bamford stumped up cash for portable toilets, flowers, a South African barbecue and an ice cream van for the lavish bash held in July.

Official declarations also reveal they paid for marquee hire, catering and waiting staff.

JCB digger mogul Lord Bamford hosted the party for the then-Prime Minister and wife Carrie - after he was forced to cancel plans to hold it at Chequers in the face of a huge public backlash.

The Johnsons were joined by family and friends at the 18th-century Daylesford House in the Cotswolds to celebrate after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to scale back their wedding day.

The £23,853 donation detailed in the latest register of MPs' financial interests showed the party included a braai, a type of South African barbecue.

The Marquee erected in the grounds of Daylesford House in Gloucestershire, where the wedding party took place (PA)

Mr Johnson has repeatedly benefited from Lord Bamford's donations, with the billionaire Tory peer supporting the MP's 2019 bid to become Conservative leader.

The ex-PM would make visits to JCB plants in front of the media's gaze, including to a factory in India and a Staffordshire plant where he used a digger to knock down a wall in a stunt to demonstrate he could "get Brexit done".

Lord Bamford's wife, Lady Carole Bamford, established the upmarket Daylesford Organic Farm, with a chain of shops selling its produce across London.