Michael Bishop

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Sir Michael Bishop is a British businessman and a Conservative life peer. He was executive chairman of British Midland until he sold his stake in the airline to Lufthansa on 1 July 2009 for a reported £223m, boosting his estimated personal fortune of £280 million [1] to over nearly £500 million.

Bishop was also Deputy Chairman of Airtours plc, a Non-Executive Director of Kidde plc and Chairman of Channel 4 Television from 1993-97.[2]

On 1 February 2011, Bishop was created a life peer as Baron Glendonbrook, of Bowdon in the County of Cheshire, and was introduced in the House of Lords on 22 March 2011,[3] where he sits as a Conservative.

Labour and Tory donor

According to the MP's Register of Financial Interests:

  • Henry Bellingham - in March 2010 Bishop gave him £25,000 for help with responsibilities as Shadow Minister for Justice. [4]
  • David Willetts - in February 2010 gave him £35,000 to support the work of his office as Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, to pay annual salary of research assistant.

In 1999 Bishop attended the £350-a-head gala dinner at the Bournemouth Pavilion ballroom during the 1999 Labour Party Conference. The dinner raised £250,000 for the Labour Party. Sir Michael Bishop was a former Tory supporter, who lent planes to John Major's election campaign[5].

British Midland gave more than £5,000 in sponsorship to the Labour Party in 1999-2000[6]

Affiliations

Trustee, Michael Bishop Foundation None None Trustee, Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia None None Trustee, Imperial War Museum Foundation

References

  1. Sunday Times Rich List, "Sir Michael Bishop". The Times (London), 27 April 2008. Acc 2 November 2008
  2. Queen's University Belfast Honorary Graduands 2002 Accessed 4 Sep 2007
  3. House of Lords Minute of Proceedings for 22 March 2011.
  4. House of Commons, REGISTER OF MEMBERS’ FINANCIAL INTERESTS as at 6 September 2010
  5. The Times; Home; 29 Sep 1999; 'Blair dinner raises Pounds 250,000 and eyebrows' Andrew Pierce and Tom Baldwin
  6. Financial Times; National News; 5 Sep 2000 'Campaigns put Labour in the red Politics Four Elections Prove a Strain of Party Coffers' Andrew Parker