BY HELEN NIANIAS

Neil Record founded Record Consultancy Management, which oversees more than £19.3 billion in client exposures, and has recently been revealed as a major donor to a Tory-led climate change denial group led by Nigel Lawson. 

Record describes the euro as “the bomb about to explode”, but doesn’t think there is any chance that global warming might beat it to the punch. DeSmog estimates that Record has donated at least £100,000 to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

Record has made a habit of donating big money, and has talked about being a member of the Leaders’ Club, the most exclusive of several Conservative donor clubs. Your paid-for audience with David Cameron is “very discretely and nicely done,” Record said in 2009.  

“You get 10 people around the table. There will be five minutes from David about what they want to do. And then it’s any questions.” In order to get the privilege of an audience with Cameron, it’s a minimum donation of £50,000.

On top of this, Record has donated £36,000 to the right-wing think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, which also has close links with the tobacco and oil industries. 

Digging further into his deep pockets, Record has also donated to Tory MP Matthew Hancock. Hancock was minister for universities and science until this summer, and voted strongly against a bankers’ bonus tax going to show that generosity rarely exists without a vested interest.