CCC backs UK Tories to the tune of $160,000

Tory leader David Cameron

RELATED STORIES: Oman extends airport bid | Top 13 Saudi Arabian construction contractors | City update: Muscat

The Middle East’s largest construction firm has donated close to $160,000 ( to the British Conservative Party, which last week formed a new coalition government with the country’s Liberal Democrats, reports ArabianBusines.com.

The news website reports that CC Property Company, a UK subsidiary of Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), made two donations of £50,000 ($71,553) and £60,000 ($85,883) to the Conservative Central Office. The first donation was made on October 27 last year, and the second on February 9 this year – just two months before the election was called by then-prime minister Gordon Brown.

UK political parties are required by law to report all donations over £7,500 to the Electoral Commission on a quarterly basis. That includes any donations made by an individual registered in an electoral register, a registered party in Great Britain, a company, trade union, building society, limited liability partnership, friendly, industrial or provident society or unincorporated association.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

CCC has previously employed a number of Labour Party government ministers as consultants, including former trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers, former foreign secretary Robin Cook, and former trade minister Baroness Symons.

Byers recently told an undercover reporter acting as a fake lobbyist that for “between £3,000 and £5,000 a day ($7,212)” he would act as a “sort of cab for hire” lobbying ministers on behalf of firms. He was not alone: former Labour Party health secretary Patricia Hewitt explained that, for a fee of £3,000 a day, she could help "a client who needs a particular regulation removed, then we can often package that up" and former Labour Party whip and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was quoted as saying he was "looking forward to ... something that, frankly, makes money", agreed that he would sit on an advisory board for £3,000 a day too.

CCC is owned by Palestinian brothers-in-law Hassib Sabbagh and Said Khoury. In the last Arabian Business Rich List, the two were valued at $6bn and $4.3bn respectively, placing them at 10th and 19th on the list of the world’s richest Arabs.

The pair founded CCC in Beirut in the 1950s, alongside the late Kamel Abdul Rahman. The firm has since built landmark projects in everything from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, to the Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, DC, to projects in Azerbaijan, Africa and the Gulf.

Donations to the 14 registered British political parties totalled  £19,260,225 (excluding public funds) between 1 January and 31 March 2010. The Conservative Party accepted  £12,357,714; Labour, £4,072,432 and the Liberal Democrats, £1,931,147.