TORY TREASURER OWNS MOST EXPENSIVE PROPERTY IN MAJORCA
By Humphrey Carter
The multi-millionaire who owns La Fortaleza in Puerto Pollensa is James Lupton, CBE, one of the Conservative Party’s chief fund raisers. Lupton, is co-treasurer of the Conservative Party and the chairman of investment bankers, Greenhill Europe, which he helped found and has a global network of corporate relationships in the healthcare sector.
Prior to that, he was at Barings Bank from 1980 until the bank was collapsed by ‘rogue trader’ Nick Leeson in 1995. Lupton was a director at the bank in 1995, the year that it went bust. He became deputy chairman when the top bosses quit and stayed on for three years under its new Dutch owners ING.
As the Bulletin reported yesterday, on Monday night, the Conservative Party held their annual ‘Black and White ball’ election fundraiser at the Grosvenor Hotel in London and the star item in the auction was a week for 24 people at the La Fortaleza exclusive estate, which Lupton is understood to have purchased for 40 million euros, in Puerto Pollensa.
The estate has a 17th century fortress with five bedrooms, five more houses, two swimming pools, and a helipad
And on 14 February 2015:-
Conservative Party loves Majorca
By Humphrey Carter
It would appear that the Conservative Party has a soft spot for Majorca with members either owning homes on the island or opting to holiday here.The Bulletin revealed this week that the current co-treasurer of the party, James Lupton CBE owns the 40 million euro luxury estate La Fortaleza in Puerto Pollensa, but there appears to be a network of serving and fomer Tory MPs on the island.
Mark Field, the MP for the Cities of London and Westminster constituency who in September 2010, was appointed by the Prime Minister to the prestigious Intelligence & Security Committee, chaired by former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind. He is the youngest MP on this Committee, who reports directly to 10 Downing Street and oversees the UK’s intelligence and security services owning a home in Alaro.Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown, MP for the Cotswolds, Vice-President of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, as well as the Chairman of the International Office spends his summers at the family’s home in Deya.
The current Father of the House of Commons and the MP for Louth and Horncastle, Sir Peter Hannay Bailey Tapsell, has a property in the old part of Palma while Sir Tim Sainsbury, who was the Conservative MP for Hove from 1973 to 1997, and served as a junior minister, holding a number of Ministerial posts in the previous Conservative administration including those of Minister of State for Trade (1990–92) and Minister for Industry (1992–94) keeps his yacht, Fair Lady, which is considered to be one of the most elegant yachts afloat, moored in Palma and is a regular visitor.
Sir Tim was President of the Hove Conservative Association from 1998 until 2002 and was President of the Conservative Friends of Israel from 1997 until 2005. Tim is a Patron of the Tory Reform Group.
Julian Sturdy, MP for York Outer is another regular visitor. His father Robert, is the former Member of the European Parliament for the East of England and owns a property in Andratx.
Another Majorcan property owner is Steven Norris. He was MP for Epping Forest and then Oxford East as well as a former Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party and he chaired the transport working group in David Cameron’s Quality of Life Commission.
And, apart from those members of the party who own properties on the island, Lord Norman Fowler, former Chairman of the party who was a member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, is a regular visitor to the island and over the past few years, both the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and the Prime Minister himself, David Cameron, have spent their family summer holidays on the island.
Cameron spent nearly two weeks at a luxury villa near Puerto Pollensa and Osborne chartered a yacht out of Puerto Soller.
