Conservative donors have been rushing to deny funding polling for a group working to oust Rishi Sunak, as David Frost was warned he could lose the whip if rival party backers were involved.
Senior Tory figures are scrambling to figure out the mystery donors behind the Conservative Britain Alliance, which funded a £40,000 poll, fronted by Lord Frost in the Telegraph, that predicted a Labour landslide.
Afterwards, Simon Clarke, a Conservative MP, publicly called for a change of leadership, and it has since emerged that a group of former Tory aides are suspected of working on a plot to replace the prime minister. One of them has been revealed as Will Dry, a former No 10 adviser, who devised the YouGov polling questions.
Donors close to Boris Johnson, including Anthony Bamford and Peter Cruddas, as well as a spokesperson for Paul Marshall, the hedge fund boss and political donor behind GB News, said they had no involvement in the polling and group behind it. An aide for Alexander Temerko, who this month gave £5,000 to Clarke, said he had no links to the polling or the Conservative Britain Alliance.
With No 10 taking the plot seriously, Frost was warned by Nicholas True, the Conservative whip in the Lords, that he could lose his party affiliation if the donors behind the Conservative Britain Alliance have given money to Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
Frost is believed to have said that he did not think Reform figures were involved but refused to give names of the donors behind the mysterious group.
There are several big donors who have given to Reform and the Conservatives who this would eliminate, including Jeremy Hosking, who also gives to Laurence Fox’s Reclaim. Hosking said he was not making any comment when asked if was involved in the Conservative Britain Alliance or the funding of the poll.
Other Tory and Reform donors include Christopher Harborne, who donated £1m to Boris Johnson’s office, and Terence Mordaunt, who gave to the leadership campaigns of Suella Braverman and Penny Mordaunt.
Meanwhile, senior government figures are concerned that aides working with the anti-Sunak rebels are attending meetings in parliament on visitors’ passes to avoid having to declare their funders.
At least two former political advisers have been seen at meetings with rebel MPs wearing visitors’ passes. These are meant to be used only by tourists visiting the parliamentary estate and not for work purposes.
One Tory source said: “The suspicion is they’re avoiding a pass so as not to declare their donors – who may be the same who are behind the David Frost polling.”
Another senior Conservative source said that during one rebel meeting, a Tory MP questioned what two aides were doing there. Parliamentary staff passes must be sponsored by a member of the Commons or Lords and those in possession of them must declare their interests and pass security vetting.
A rebel source said: “Anyone wondering why Sunak is 20 points behind in the polls should look no further than the fact those running No 10 are focused on this nonsense.”
Last week’s YouGov poll suggested the Tories were heading for a crushing election defeat, accompanied by an op-ed from Frost arguing that their only hope was to take a harder line on immigration.
A new Tory leader would be the fourth Conservative prime minister in 18 months. Boris Johnson departed in September 2022 and was briefly succeeded by Truss before Sunak took charge.
It prompted Labour’s national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden, to say the Tories were forming “another circular firing squad”.
“There are many good reasons for getting rid of this clapped-out Conservative government, and liberating the British people from endless bouts of Tory infighting is certainly one of them,” he said.
