Midlands Industrial Council

The Midlands Industrial Council is a group of wealthy businessmen who help to fund the Conservative Party. According to the Sunday Times, they are one of the Party's 'most important financial backers'.Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Tories forced to name club of millionaire supporters, the Sunday Times, 15-October-2006Robert Booth, Who is behind the Taxpayers Alliance, The Guardian, 9-October-2009, Accessed 24-January-2011 The Group donated £2 million to the Conservative's between 2001-2006 and is 'dominated by property developers, the heads of haulage firms, food-processing companies and other traditional manufacturers'. The MIC is an 'unincorporated association' which means it does not need to publish accounts or disclose the names of its members.Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Tories forced to name club of millionaire supporters, the Sunday Times, 15-October-2006 
Kim Jaberi, who supplies food for airlines and is the only ethnic minority member of the council, told the Sunday Times: 
:'I was invited to join about five years ago. We are self-made people who can tell politicians about transport, about climate change, about tax -what real life is about.'Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Tories forced to name club of millionaire supporters, the Sunday Times, 15-October-2006
As well as the Conservative Party the group also provides funding to the Taxpayers' Alliance.Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Tories forced to name club of millionaire supporters, the Sunday Times, 15-October-2006 In 2006 secretary of the MIC David Wall argued that 
:'I've met almost every member of the shadow cabinet you care to mention. We are for the furtherance of free enterprise ... We have a mutual interest in politics'.Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, Tories forced to name club of millionaire supporters, the Sunday Times, 15-October-2006
==Conservative Party Funding==
In the 2005 general election the three-quarters of the 33 Conservative candidates who ousted Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs received cash from a Conservative Party donors' fund worth over £2m. The funds came from 3 donors, Lord Ashcroft, Lord Steinberg, and the Midlands Industrial Council who combined to bypass central office and directly fund constituency associations. The practice does not break any of the rules on campaign funding laid down by the Electoral Commission.David Hencke, After the election: Secret Tory fund helped win marginals: Campaign: Labour and Lib Dem seats targeted for this and next election, the Guardian, 10-May-2005
==Affiliation==
Conservative Party | Taxpayers' Alliance | HS2 Cannot be Justified
==People==
Robert Edmiston - Chairman | David Wall - Secretary | Tony Gallagher | Roy Richardson | Anthony Bamford | David Lees, Tate & Lyle | Allen Lloyd | David Sandworth | Kim Jaberi | Peter Shirley | John Butcher | Christopher Kelly | James Leavesley | John Leavesley | Richard Smith | Brian Pettifer | Graham Hampson Silk
==Former People==
David Lees, GKNEuan Ferguson And Marie Woolf, CORPORATE CONTRIBUTORS: THE PROPAGANDA BUSINESS, The Observer, 14-April-1996 | Eric PountainDaily Telegraph, Obituary of Sir Eric Pountain Industrialist who quadrupled the annual profits of Tarmac and led an ambitious programme of expansion, Daily Telegraph, 27-October-2003
==Speakers at Events==
David DavisEdited by Sam Leith, AT A meeting this week of ..., the Telegraph, 07-December-2001
==Notes==
Category: Conservative Party Donors