Tories ‘must give back Nadir cash’

Published on 25/08/2012 01:34

THE man who was Tory treasurer when the party received hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations from Asil Nadir’s Polly Peck business empire yesterday called on David 
Cameron to hand back the “tainted” money.

Lord McAlpine said the Prime Minister was under a “moral duty” to return the political gift after the former fugitive tycoon was jailed for 10 years earlier this week.

The sentencing of Nadir, 
who donated £440,000 to the Tories during the 1980s, came 
a day after he was convicted 
of stealing £28.8 million from the global business he built up from an east London textile company.

Urging the governing party to return the money, Lord McAlpine said: “It is tainted money and it shames the Conservatives if they hang on to it. They have a moral duty to give it back.”

He said that the money should be paid to Nadir’s creditors, some of whom lost their life savings when Polly Peck International (PPI) crashed leaving debts of £550 million.

Nadir, who was once 36th on the Sunday Times Rich List, was found guilty of 10 counts of theft from the company between 1987 and 1990