EXTRACT: He has now given more than GBP16 million to Labour and has made a GBP2 million loan.
NOTE: Lord Sainsbury's long been the Labour Party's biggest individual donor. A GM enthusiast with biotech business interests, he was also Science Minister until last year and a member of the cabinet biotechnology committee, Sci-Bio, responsible for national policy on GM crops and foods, as well as a key adviser to Brown's predecessor,Tony Blair, on GM technology. A member of Labour's National Executive Committee, memorably told the BBC, "In any other country I think a government minister donating such vast amounts of money and effectively buying a political party would be seen for what it is, a form of corruption of the political process."
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=116
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/sainsburyupdate.htm
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Lord Sainsbury gives Labour GBP2m
Press Association, September 7 2007
Former science minister Lord Sainsbury has given the Labour Party a donation of GBP2 million, he has announced.
The former head of supermarket giant Sainsbury's said he made the donation because he believed Labour was the only party committed to social justice and economic prosperity.
He has now given more than GBP16 million to Labour and has made a GBP2 million loan.
Lord Sainsbury resigned from the Government last year after becoming a minister in 1998. He was questioned in the cash-for-honours allegations but he always stressed that he was interviewed as a witness and dismissed suggestions he quit because of the police inquiry.
He said in a statement: "I have today made a donation of GBP2 million to the Labour Party because I believe that Labour is the only party which is committed to delivering both social justice and economic prosperity. This is why I joined the party in the 1960s and why I continue to support it today.
"I have been very impressed by the start that Gordon Brown has made as Prime Minister, and want to help ensure that he is able to continue the progress that has been made in recent years in delivering prosperity for all."
Born David Sainsbury in 1940, he became a multi-millionaire in his twenties when he inherited a share in his family's famous supermarket chain.
He was chairman until his appointment as a government minister, having previously been finance director.
His gifts to Labour started while the party was in opposition. Tony Blair brought him to the House of Lords as a life peer following Labour's election victory in 1997 and he was appointed science minister. He maintained he had only planned to be in the government for three or four years.
Peter Watt, Labour Party General Secretary, said: "I would like to thank Lord Sainsbury for his long standing and unstinting support for the Labour Party and our goals of combining social justice with economic prosperity for everyone."