Wealthy Lib Dem donor gives cash windfall to Brighton and Hove Labour Party

The identity of a mystery donor who has given £10,000 to Brighton and Hove Labour Party is revealed today (Friday 9 May).

When the Brighton and Hove Independent disclosed in April that Sue Ruddick had made the donation, her name was unknown even to senior party members.

At the time, however, attention was focused on a separate disclosure – about a £10,000 donation two days earlier.

It had been made by Josh Arghiros, the property developer behind the failed £290 million redevelopment of King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove.

Mr Arghiros said that he was not a Labour supporter but admired Peter Kyle, the party’s parliamentary candidate in Hove.

Now it emerges that Mrs Ruddick has a record as a substantial donor to the Liberal Democrats.

Sue Ruddick

She has given the Lib Dems two separate donations at national level of £12,500 in August 2012 and March last year.

Her husband Simon, a hedge fund financier with a personal fortune believed to total £45 million – gave the same sum on the same dates.

Previously, Mr Ruddick had given two donations of £25,000 each to the Liberal Democrats nationally, in May 2010 and September 2008.

The couple live in a Worth Hall, a £3 million property in Worth, near Crawley.

Richard Ruddick, believed to be their son, stood as a Liberal Democrat in the city council elections in Manchester in 2011, while a student at Manchester University. He attracted 137 votes, the fewest of four candidates in Charlestown ward. The seat was won by the Labour candidate, with 2,196 votes.

Simon Ruddick

So why the generosity to the Labour Party in Brighton and Hove?

It is difficult to be certain. Neither Mrs Ruddick nor her husband wished to comment.

Danielle Glavin, the party’s regional press officer, did not respond to questions. Nor did Mel Davis, who chairs the Labour Party in Brighton and Hove, and nor did Peter Van Vliet, its treasurer.

The Brighton and Hove Independent said that no finance report had been given to party members since the donation on Sunday 1 December last year.

The answer may again be personal rather than political. A starting point is 53-year-old Mr Ruddick.

Here is what Philip Beresford, author of the Sunday Times Rich List has to say about him: “A Cambridge graduate, Ruddick started working for Japanese investment banks as a derivatives trader in the early 1980s.

“He left in 1989 to form specialist equity derivatives boutique Westminster Equity, but sold his 50 per cent stake five years later.

“It was then that Ruddick co-founded Albourne Partners, now a hugely respected hedge fund consulting firm.

“Initially based in a cramped office behind a butcher’s shop in the Sussex village of Albourne, hence its name, Albourne has grown sharply.

“It has its own online village called Albourne, which has developed into an online community for the hedge fund world.

“Ruddick owns nearly 45 per cent of the £90 million business, which made nearly £9.3 million profit on £45 million turnover in 2012-13.

“Ruddick’s stake and other assets should take him to £45 million.”

It is believed that Mrs Ruddick may have been attracted into making a donation through John Claisse, who holds a first-class mathematics degree and a PhD from Sussex University.

Mr Claisse is the San Francisco-based head of the portfolio group at Albourne Partners and thought to be the brother of Rob Claisse.

Rob Claisse – the co-founder of Brighton-based Progression Sports and Fat Sand Productions – is also a Sussex graduate, with a PhD in development studies.

At the Falmer campus, his “best mate” – and future fellow director, from 2003 to 2006 – was Peter Kyle.