Published in: North Somerset Times

North Somerset Tory MP Dr Liam Fox has accepted almost a quarter of a million pounds in donations and gifts since the last general election, the latest register of MPs’ interests has revealed.

Since December 2019, the Conservative MP has received a total of £224,328 in donations and gifts, as declared on his register of interests. He has also been gifted life membership to the exclusive Carlton Club, in St James’s London, which is reported to be worth more than £1,700 per year.

Dr Emma Coombe, North Somerset Labour Party Secretary, said: “North Somerset residents might wonder how their MP manages to find the time to represent their interests when his register of interests reveals such a remarkable range of funding sources, many of them from companies many miles away from the constituency.” She added: “it would certainly be interesting to hear what Dr Fox’s donors expect in return for their generosity.”

In the past year alone, the Conservative MP has declared nine separate donations totalling £77,500. These include £10,000 each from the West Midlands-based financial services firm Dukehill Services, the Middlesex-based waste management firm BMJ Waste, the Buckinghamshire-based insurance firm Partners & Limited, the Oxfordshire-based investment management company Invesco Perpetual, and the Bristol Port Company.

Controversial donations have included £10,000 earlier this year from the energy firm Aquind, which has been seeking government approval for a major new infrastructure project. The company also gave Dr Fox £10,000 in 2019 and its co-owner, Alexander Temerko, made a £10,000 donation to the MP in 2021. Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt has suggested colleagues should stop taking funds from Mr Temerko.

Dr Fox also faced criticism after accepting a £20,000 donation from the Derbyshire-based firm SureScreen Diagnostics in July 2022, two years after he recommended the company to health secretary Matt Hancock and it went on to win a £500m Department of Health Covid testing contract. Dr Fox accused the Good Law Project of a ‘baseless smear’ after it raised questions about the donation and told the Guardian he was seeking legal advice. The Good Law Project later noted that Dr Fox’s lawyers had not been in touch.

Dr Fox’s income from donations in the last year – a total of £77,500 – is more than double the £33,450 average annual wage of those he represents and comes on top of his £86,584 basic salary as an MP, and his income as chair of the Global Britain Commission and as an advisor for the Panama-based consultancy WorldPR.

Whilst Liam Fox has accepted £224,328 since the last general election, Bristol’s four Labour MPs Kerry McCarthy, Darren Jones, Karin Smyth, and Thangam Debbonaire accepted just £3,168, £2,981, £4,000, and £845 respectively.

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