Failed Tory leadership candidates have raised £135,000 in donations for doomed campaigns

Donors to their unsuccessful campaigns included hedge funders, conservative bigwigs and a company run by a prominent climate skeptic

Failed leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat (

Image: PA)

Failed Tory leadership candidates have raised at least £135,000 in donations for their doomed bid to replace Boris Johnson

Donors to their unsuccessful campaigns included hedge funders, conservative bigwigs and a company run by a prominent climate skeptic.

Neither Liz Truss nor Penny Mordaunt have so far declared any donations, while Rishi Sunak has declared just over £3,195 in office expenses.

MPs have 28 days to report donations under House of Commons rules, which means donations made after July 11 may not be released for two weeks.

But MPs who dropped out earlier in the race have begun to declare who funded their campaigns.

Recently released figures reveal that Tom Tugendhat, who was knocked out in the third round, raised £123,000 to spend on his campaign, just £27,000 short of the £150,000 spending limit.

Failed leadership hopeful Suella Braverman (

Picture:

Zuma Press/PA Pictures)

Suella Braverman has accepted a £10,000 donation from First Corporate Consultants, which is owned by leading climate skeptic Terence Mordaunt.

Mr. Mordaunt is said to be a distant relative of his leadership rival Penny Mordaunt, whom he once donated to as an MP.

He is a trustee and former chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a climate-skeptic lobby group that now operates as Net Zero Watch.

During her campaign, Ms. Braverman called for a halt to the “all-consuming desire to reach net zero by 2050”.

She said: "If we continue, especially before businesses and families can adapt, our economy will end up with zero net growth. We don't want to end up like the Germans, going after Putin to heating and electricity."