A financier who has donated almost £150,000 to the Conservatives has been made a life peer and given a ministerial job, Downing Street has announced.
Malcolm Offord, founder and chair of an Edinburgh-based “boutique investment” company, Badenoch and Co, will be made a life peer, a statement said, and become a junior minister in the Scotland Office.
Offord was a candidate for the Conservatives in May’s Scottish parliamentary election, a decision that prompted accusations of cronyism given that he had donated £147,500 to the party. Offord stood as a list candidate in the Lothian region, but was not elected.
He is the latest Conservative donor or associate to be sent to the Lords under Boris Johnson. In December last year, of 54 people ennobled by Johnson, 13 had either funded the Tories or had an employment or personal connection to Johnson. » | Peter Walker | Thursday, September 30, 2021
