The Chancellor has received pelters from all sides since his appointment to Rishi Sunak’s cabinet – and Jeremy Hunt is now coming under fire from one of the Conservative Party’s biggest backers in recent years.
Rocco Forte has ploughed his wealth into the governing party, but has since withdrawn his funding in the wake of Brexit. Though Mr. Forte backed the Vote Leave campaign, the Tories won’t be receiving his donations any time soon.
He was asked about Hunt’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday morning. Rather than back Hunt, he hung him out to dry, describing his response as ‘completely underwhelming’ and slamming the government’s approach to growth.
“It’s completely underwhelming what Jeremy Hunt has said about growth – and nothing is being done to tackle the real issues in the economy. He’s the one who has raised taxes, now he talks about cutting them sometime in the future.”
“[The Tories] talk about growth, Labour talks about growth, but everything they’re doing is contrary to growth in the economy. You can’t grow the economy with higher taxes, and we cannot repay our debts overnight.” | Rocco Forte
The hotelier – who has been an outspoken critic of the government’s handling of the UK’s split with the EU– has confessed to being disillusioned by what he sees as a failure to take advantage of the many opportunities afforded by the political divorce.
He has always been a Tory, donating £100,000 to the Conservative Party before the most recent election and throwing a £12,000 victory party for Boris Johnson when he was appointed leader at his Mayfair hotel.
Sir Rocco has also expressed his desire to leave for Italy, mirroring the moves made by other ultra-wealthy Brits.
Dyson founder Sir James Dyson moved the headquarters of his technology company to Singapore, while Sir Jim Ratcliffe also announced the production of the new Ineos electric Grenadier off-road vehicle is set to be moved to Austria.
