Leading communal businessman donates £5million to Labour Party
Gary Lubner, the ex boss of Autoglass, has pledged to give away "vast majority" of his wealth to progressive causes
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
One of the community’s most successful businessmen, the former Autoglass boss Gary Lubner, has pledged to donate at least £5million to the Keir Starmer led Labour Party to help put them in power at the next general election “for a long time.”
Lubner, who stepped down as CEO of Autoglass owner Belron in March having amassed a multi-million pound fortune, gave £500,000 to Labour in the first quarter of 2023, Electoral Commission figures show, which followed an earlier £200,000 donation to the party.
One of these donations helped pay for a member of staff working in the office of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The Alyth Synagogue member has now pledged to give “significantly more” to Starmer’s party, with regular contributions to continue to help fund Labour’s push to gain power at the next election.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Lubner, a long-time supporter of the UJIA charity, said he wanted to give away “the vast majority” of his wealth, to other charitable causes.
Jewish News understands that other progressive communal causes are in line to receive a much needed financial boost from South-African born Lubner, whose grandparents were Jewish refugees from one of the pogroms in Russia in the early 20th century and his grandmother saw her parents shot in front of her.
The committed West Ham fan told the FT that his three children support the decision to give away vast sums of money to worthwhile causes.“My kids are not interested,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to pass on that amount of wealth.”
Lubner, 64, also praised Starmer for his efforts in tackling Labour’s antisemitism problem. “I was horrified by what was going on,” he said.
Lubner also referenced his youngest son, a Labour student activist who he said was “abused, pilloried, attacked” under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
But he added: “Starmer got rid of them, to his credit. It was a real cancer in the party.” Lubner did not confirm exactly how much he would donate to Labour, but he admitted the £5 million figure was a reasonable estimate.
He criticised the Tory Party policy on Brexit, and on immigration.“In the long list of Tory failures in the last 13 years, Brexit is top of the list,” he told the FT.
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