Rishi Sunak handing a knighthood to a controversial and wealthy Tory donor “stinks to high heaven”, a Labour shadow cabinet minister said last night.
Campaigning ahead of May’s local elections, Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth said the gong for Mohamed Mansour proved the PM is only interested in “saving his own skin for a bit longer.”
Egyptian-born billionaire Mohamed Mansour, named a Conservative Party treasurer by Mr Sunak last year, was among those given gongs in a surprise honours list snuck out before the Easter weekend.
Mr Mansour, a former minister under Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, gave the Tories their largest donation in 20 years in 2023 - reportedly lifting the party out of a financial black hole.
Last January the Sunday Mirror reported how Mr Mansour had been raking it in from a firm still dealing with warmonger Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Putin accused of surrounding himself with same 'actors' at series of events
“I stinks to high heaven,” Mr Ashworth said. “I’ve never known a Prime Minister sneak honours to Tory MPs and donors this way. It just shows that Rishi Sunak has the most terrible judgement.”
Mr Ashworth says everything Rishi Sunak touches 'goes to s***' (Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)He added: “This proves they are not governing in the national interest. He’s only interested in trying to save his own skin for a bit longer.”
Mr Ashworth spoke to this newspaper before a visit to Ashfield in Nottinghamshire - the constituency currently held by ex-Tory defector Lee Anderson.
“Everything Rishi Sunak touches goes to s*** doesn’t it?” he said, referring to Mr Anderson quitting the Tories and joining Reform UK just months after being made Conservative Party deputy chairman.
“If I sent this script to the BBC comedy department, I think they would return it to you as being to farfetched.”
Ashfield, Mr Ashworth says, is an “important” seat for Labour.
“We lost it in 2019, we want to win it back,” he said. “The Tory party is failing. And the particular thing about places like Ashfield and Bolsover and Stoke…places characterised by journalists as the “red wall” - these were towns and communities who put their trust in the Tory party for the first time in 2019.
“And on everything they were promised, the Tories have betrayed them and let them down.”
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