Millionaire city analyst donates £10k to Brighton MP

A multimillionaire former city analyst has donated £10,000 to Brighton Pavilion Green MP Caroline Lucas and £10,000 to the Green Party.

Details of the donations were published today (Friday 15 August) by the Brighton and Hove Independent.

The free weekly newspaper said that James Arbib, 42, had previously supported Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP with a record of supporting environmental causes.

His father Sir Martyn Arbib has given nearly £500,000 to the Conservative Party, the newspaper reported.

Mr Arbib is a Cambridge graduate who worked as an investment analyst in the City of London. He is also a substantial investor in resource-efficient technologies, the Independent said.

He came to wider public attention when it was reported that he had sold his Chelsea mansion to Hugh Grant and Zac Goldsmith’s older sister Jemima Khan for £18 million in 2006.

Sir Martyn was knighted in 2003, two years after he sold his Perpetual fund management company for more than £1 billion. He received £113 million in cash and shares worth an estimated £300 million.

Members of the Arbib family – through the Arbib Foundation – have been heavily involved from the start in Langley Academy, Slough, which opened under Tony Blair’s government in 2008.

For his part, Mr Arbib runs Tellus Mater Foundation, a grant-making charity whose mission is “to catalyse a shift to sustainable capitalism: to change the operating rules for capitalism so that finance can better fulfil its role in directing the flows of financial capital to production systems that preserve and enhance natural capital”.

According to the Electoral Commission, Mr Arbib gave £10,000 to Caroline Lucas on Tuesday 8 April, the same day as he gave £10,000 to the Green Party nationally.

Electoral Commission records also show a £2,500 donation by Betterworld, a corporate vehicle for Henry Tinsley, the former chairman of Green & Blacks, the chocolate company.

Caroline Lucas

Betterworld has given more than £100,000 to Labour and the Liberal Democrats to help fight Conservatives in marginal seats.

Mr Tinsley is also involved in 38 Degrees, the online campaigning organisation, the Independent said.

A further £6,000 has been given by Martin Bevis Gillett, 72, after a 1,000-mile sponsored cycle ride in memory of his brother, David. His brother was a Green Party activist who died in a cycling accident in 2004.

Penny Kemp, the Green Party’s external communications co-ordinator, said told the Independent that donations were accepted in line with an ethical donations policy that went beyond anything required by law.

She said: “We also make clear that donations are accepted without there being any direct return benefit to the donor.

“An important factor for us is the track record of the donor and if they are seen broadly to back the same progressive values we promote.

“Mr Arbib has worked for many years to support important projects in the environmental field, for example, his foundation has funded some pioneering work on climate change and the economic system.

“We’re grateful to him for supporting Caroline and the Green Party and for his emphasising the importance of keeping a Green voice in Parliament.”

Mr Arbib said: “I think it’s very important for the Green Party to have a voice in Parliament.

“I support the work that Caroline Lucas has done to date and want to see it continue in the next parliamentary term.

“Without a Green voice in Parliament, it would be harder to get support across society for the changes that need to happen to move us into a more sustainable and environmentally stable society.”