Lord Waheed Alli is the Labour Get together’s largest donor.
Because of profitable careers in banking, TV, and trend, the 59-year-old has given greater than £700,000 of his estimated £200m fortune to the occasion.
However this month, 1000’s gifted to Sir Keir Starmer and his spouse in luxurious workwear and glasses landed the prime minister on the centre of a freebies row, by which he was revealed to have acquired greater than another MP.
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Lord Alli avoids query at Labour convention
Banking and TV fortunes
Waheed Alli was born close to Croydon, south London, within the Nineteen Sixties to a Trinidadian mom and a Guyanese father.
His mom, who labored as a nurse, was Hindu, however Lord Alli determined to take up his father’s Muslim religion as a substitute.
He left college at 16 with 9 O Ranges and received a job as a researcher for the specialist monetary journal Deliberate Financial savings.
After three years one of many firms he wrote about invited him for an interview. His second job – as an funding banker for Save & Prosper – ultimately noticed him capable of cost £1,000 a day as a Metropolis guide.
He began making contacts within the Labour Get together within the late Nineteen Eighties – on the identical time that his then accomplice Charlie Parsons satisfied him to assist launch a brand new TV manufacturing firm with singer Sir Bob Geldof.
Lord Alli and Mr Parsons lived collectively in a mansion in Kent, the place they’d typically throw lavish movie star events.
Their firm – Planet 24 – produced The Huge Breakfast and The Phrase, and the pair grew to become extremely influential members of the Nineties media scene.
Picture:
Lord Alli in 2014. Pic: Rex
Got here out within the Lords
In a 2011 interview with the Monetary Instances, Lord Alli recollects serving to Labour struggle off its militant wing in London’s East Finish within the Nineteen Eighties.
He formally joined the occasion on the recommendation of his buddy and MP Emily Thornberry, in keeping with experiences.
As New Labour emerged, he received concerned with Sir Tony Blair’s staff and labored to assist get him elected in 1997.
Having not been given a authorities job, Sir Tony provided him a seat within the Home of Lords in 1998 – making him the youngest peer in historical past at 33.
His first massive speech was in 1999 – in help of reducing the age of consent for homosexual males from 18 to 16.
He used it to return out to his fellow friends, telling these Conservatives who opposed him: “I have never been confused about my sexuality. I have been confused about the way I am treated as a result of it. The only confusion lies in the prejudice shown, some of it tonight [i.e. in the House], and much of it enshrined in the law.”
Describing the success of the invoice as “electric”, he advised the Monetary Instances that giving the speech itself made him really feel “absolutely sick to my stomach”.
In 2000, Lord Alli was appointed to New Labour’s so-called ‘committee for cool’ to assist the UK’s ‘Cool Britannia’ picture on the worldwide stage.
Picture:
Lord Alli at a Stonewall occasion in 2013. File pic: Shutterstock
ASOS chairman, uni chancellor and David Cameron’s colleague
As Lord Alli’s wealth and profile grew – he took on varied jobs and enterprise offers.
In 2003 he grew to become chairman of the corporate Chorion Ltd, which owns the rights to each Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie’s work.
Earlier than David Cameron grew to become prime minister, he labored with him on the PR agency Carlton Communications.
He has additionally been chairman of on-line trend retailer ASOS, chancellor of DeMontfort College in Leicester, and director of the late Paul O’Grady’s manufacturing firm Olga Tv.
His charity work, primarily for youth mobility and homosexual rights, has seen him grow to be president of the Croydon Youth Growth Belief and patron for Skillset, Satisfaction London, and the Elton John AIDS Basis.
He has been described as one of the influential Asian media figures within the UK and has a portrait in London’s Nationwide Portrait Gallery.
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Sir Keir Starmer below hearth for freebies
Starmer authorities freebie row
Lord Alli has donated 1000’s to numerous Labour politicians over time. He gave each Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall £26,500 in direction of their occasion management bids in 2015 and £10,000 to Owen Smith the next 12 months.
He grew to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief marketing campaign fundraiser in 2022 however has given him greater than £39,000 in items for the reason that earlier common election in 2019.
He spent the same sum on lodging and different “private office costs” for him in the course of the election marketing campaign, accounts present.
Based on the register of MPs’ curiosity, Lord Alli has given £14,000 to Schooling Secretary Bridget Phillipson for “work events”.
He additionally let deputy chief Angela Rayner keep at his New York residence for New 12 months’s Eve and gave her £2,230 in donations for garments.
The Labour peer has at all times mentioned he does not need “anything in return” for his donations.
He mentioned of his fortune to the FT: “I pay myself a salary and I don’t really know where the rest of it is. I live my life on my salary because if I thought about the rest of it I think it would probably drive me mad.”
Sir Keir, Ms Rayner, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have mentioned they are going to not settle for clothes donations. The prime minister has defended his freebies, claiming that when he got here to workplace – all Lord Alli’s donations have been correctly declared.
