- The Conservative Party is planning its annual summer fundraiser at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
- Tickets for the reception and dinner start at £1,500, with an auction held in the evening.
- It has sparked questions about whether party co-chair Ben Elliot mis-used his role as V&A trustee.
The Conservative Party is planning to hold its annual summer fundraising event at the Victoria and Albert museum, where the party co-chair Ben Elliot sits on the board as a trustee.
The summer party is normally held at the Hurlingham Club, an exclusive private social club in south-west London. But an invite for the event shared with the Sarawak Report shows the fundraiser will this year be held at the V&A on June 20.
Tickets for the event start at £1,500 for a standard ticket or £2,000 for a premium ticket, with premium tickets offering closer access to senior Tory figures. In addition to the dinner, an auction is held to raise funds for the party.
Previous gifts bought up by donors have included private champagne parties, grouse moor shooting in Scotland, and a ride in Jacob Rees-Mogg's Bentley, the Mirror has previously reported.
Elliot has been a trustee at the museum since January 2017, and was re-appointed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in January 2021 for a further four-year period.
During Elliot's first term as a trustee at the museum, there were two exclusive invitation-only events for the clients of his firm, Quintessentially, a concierge service for the super-rich.
Elliot hosted breakfasts and behind-the-scenes talks linked to exhibitions at the museum in 2018 and 2019. Accounts for the V&A show the museum received £1,000 per year from Quintessentially.
The summer party will come little over a month after the Conservative spring lunch, where the party raised funds by auctioning a tour of the V&A led by the board of the chair of trustees, Nicholas Coleridge, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Labour is now calling for an investigation to determine whether Elliot is abusing his role at the museum.
Lucy Powell, shadow culture secretary, told Insider: "This latest revelation poses further questions about whether Tory party co-chair is using his privileged position as trustee of the V&A to further his political and business interests.
"Charities should not be used for political gain. There should be an investigation of whether he mis-used his position at the museum - and Boris Johnson should have sacked him as Tory party chair a long time ago."
Powell has written to the Public Appointments Commissioner and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the government department which sponsors the museum, over "conflicts of interest" between the Conservatives and public bodies.
The code of conduct for board members of public bodies states that they should "be, and be seen to be, politically impartial," adding: "You should not occupy a paid party political post or hold a particularly sensitive or high-profile role in a political party. You should abstain from all controversial political activity."
Powell wrote: "Auctioning an exclusive tour at a party-political fundraiser would not appear to pass the test of 'politically impartial."
Several Tory MPs and donors Insider approached said they had not received an invite to the event, which comes just three days before two by-elections.
However the new location was confirmed by a V&A spokesperson, who told Insider the museum's corporate events team had been approached by the Conservatives. The spokesperson said no V&A trustees were involved in the process.
The Conservative Party declined to comment on the location, citing security concerns. A spokesperson said the party always pays full commercial rates for venues.