Banker donated chauffeur to Iain Duncan Smith before his speech on poverty during Brexit campaign
Exclusive: High-profile Leave campaigner claimed the EU had 'become a friend of the haves rather than the have nots'
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Your support makes all the difference.Iain Duncan Smith was driven around by a £7,000 chauffeur donated by a banker during the EU referendum campaign, The Independent has learned.
The premium car service, donated by a company of which merchant banker Lord George Magan is a director, ferried the former Work and Pensions Secretary around while he kept to his busy media schedule.
The revelation comes after Mr Duncan Smith delivered a speech in May – while he had access to the chauffeur – in which he claimed the European Union had “become a friend of the haves rather than the have-nots”.
Mr Duncan Smith's parliamentary register of interests lists the “use of a car and driver between 3 May and 12 June 2016” and states that it was donated by St James Company. The total value of the service was estimated at £7,175.58.
Lord Magan, a former Conservative Party treasurer, is listed as one of two directors of St James Company, Companies House records show. The other director is his wife Lady Wendy Magan. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on their part.
According to The Sunday Times Rich List, Lord Magan’s wealth has been between £60m and £200m. His late father Brigadier Bill Magan was a former director of MI5.
The peer was reported to have made around £20m from the sale of his private equity fund Hambro Magan to Natwest Markets in 1996. In 2004, the Financial Times described the firm founded by the peer as “one of London's first corporate finance boutiques and the leading one of its time”. Companies House also lists donor St James Company's accounts as being overdue, having been required by 31 March 2016.
Mr Duncan Smith was one of the key faces of the Leave campaign, having quit his role in the Cabinet ahead of the EU referendum.
He resigned after a row over disability benefit cuts, arguing that David Cameron's government had been balancing the books on the backs of the most vulnerable in society, and has not returned to the Cabinet under the new Prime Minister Theresa May.
The Independent made attempts to contact both Mr Duncan Smith and Lord Magan for comment, but did not receive a response.
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