The company that owns Virgin Media plans to donate up to £500,000 to the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, it emerged yesterday.
Liberty Global, the media company that owns the UK-based telephone services firm, is considering making one of the largest corporate donations to the Remain camp in the final seven weeks before the referendum.
Manuel Kohnstamm, chief corporate affairs officer at Liberty Global, said that the company, which must seek shareholder approval first, was evaluating making a donation because of the “uncertain macroeconomic impact that a UK exit from the EU could have on business and consumers”.
Several executives at Virgin Media are understood to be staunch supporters of the Remain campaign. If Liberty Global donates half a million pounds, it will match the reported pledge made by Goldman Sachs, the investment bank. Other global banks — Citi, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley — have already made six-figure donations to the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign group, according to reports.
David Harding, a founder of Winton Capital Management, who sits on the board of the Remain group, is also said to be donating several million pounds.
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Claims have leaked out that the rival Leave campaign has received gifts from the Tory donors and businessmen Sir Michael Hintze and Peter Cruddas. Members of the Midlands Industrial Council, a collection of businessmen who have funded the Conservatives for two decades, are also planning to donate between £4 million and £5 million, it was reported last month.
The revelation of Liberty Global’s plans came as sources in Vote Leave said yesterday that the Brexit campaign was poised formally to suspend fundraising efforts shortly, having raised almost all the maximum amount of money it is permitted to spend.
The two leading campaigns on either side of the debate are each allowed to spend up to £7 million in the ten weeks until polling day. Other organisations that are not affiliated to the lead campaign groups may each spend up to £700,000 during the same period.
A spokesman for the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign refused to comment on whether it has almost reached its fundraising target. Neither campaign has released any official information about donations.
The first tranche of donor information is set to be published by the Electoral Commission on Wednesday, with the second batch out on May 26 and the third on June 21.
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The Leave campaign is narrowly ahead of Remain, 45 to 44 per cent, according to a poll published by ICM on Tuesday.
Yesterday it emerged that David Cameron and Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who is campaigning for Leave, will take their rivalry over the EU to the green fields of Countryfile in the coming weeks.
In an attempt to win over the rural vote, they will appear on separate episodes of the Sunday night programme on BBC One.
Remain
Goldman Sachs, £500,000; JP Morgan, £100,000+; Citigroup; Morgan Stanley; David Harding
Leave
Midlands Industrial Council, £4m to £5m; Paul Marshall, £100,000+; Crispin Odey; Sir Michael Hintze; Peter Cruddas
On May 11 the Electoral Commission will give details of all £7,500+ donors