Who paid for Osborne’s helicopter so he could fly around the country to schmooze the Tory grassroots? Anthony Gallagher is a property developer worth £500 million who is in the Leader’s Group of major Conservative donors. A member of the Chipping Norton set, Gallagher’s generosity earned him dinner with David Cameron at Chequers in 2014. His firm, Countywide Developments, stumped up the £8,000 for the Chancellor’s chopper. 

Gallagher makes his money by buying up vast land banks and then developing them into houses or retail parks. So he has directly benefited from Osborne’s “we are the builders” development drive. Not to mention the liberalisation of planning laws to make property development easier. Gallagher’s companies own 35,000 house-building plots throughout the UK, so an £8,000 chopper is a good investment to keep the housing-bubble inflating Chancellor sweet. Paging John McDonnell…