Hedge fund, VC bosses rowed in to fund Truss leadership campaign

Interdealer broker Icap’s founder Michael Spencer gifted £25,000 at the beginning of August, having previously backed both former chancellor Rishi Sunak and now Commons leader Penny Mordaunt’s bids to become leader.

Jon Moynihan, the venture capitalist who served as chief executive and executive chairman of PA Consulting Group, donated £20,000, while Graham Edwards of property investors Telereal Trillium chipped in £50,000.

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Greville Howard, who formerly chaired investment firm Fortress Holdings, also supported Truss by opening up his Westminster townhouse as campaign base, The Guardian reported.

Lord Vinson, who was deputy chair of the Electra Investment Trust in the 1990s, gave £5,000.

Since taking over as prime minister, attention has now turned to Truss’ business credentials, and those of her chancellor, former JPMorgan analyst Kwasi Kwarteng, after a radical tax-cutting and high-spending mini-budget caused gilt yields to spike, forcing the Bank of England to intervene to stop a selling spiral at pension funds where bond derivatives underpinned their investment strategies.

Retail bank heads from the likes of NatWest, Nationwide and Lloyds are set to meet Kwarteng on 6 October to discuss the knock-on effect the mini-budget has had on mortgages, as many lenders hiked rates or took products off the market.

Despite pressing ahead with moves such as scrapping the banker bonus cap, Kwarteng decided to reverse a decision made by his predecessor Sunak to cut the so-called surcharge tax on bank profits from 8% to 3%.

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