Sunak refuses to say whether he met sleep guru Tory donor who funded private jet

Rishi Sunak has refused to say whether he met a millionaire sleep guru at a Downing Street reception before the entrepreneur donated £38,500 to fund the Prime Minister’s travels by private jet.

After Labour leader Keir Starmer criticised Mr Sunak’s use of private jets during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, shadow Home Office minister Alex Norris asked the PM “whether he personally met Akhil Tripathi in April last year, prior to Mr Tripathi giving him £38,000 pounds for the hire of a private jet.”

The question comes after revelations by i that Labour had put pressure on the Electoral Commission to investigate donations to Mr Sunak and the Conservative Party from a private medical firm and Mr Tripathi, a businessman who made his fortune from an anti-snoring device.

Mr Sunak did not answer Mr Norris’s question, instead saying: “All my declarations are made in the usual way according to the usual processes.”

i also revealed last month that Mr Tripathi was facing a legal challenge brought by a group of investors in a company he co-founded.

Mr Tripathi denies all the allegations made against him and claims all his actions were taken to ease the company’s “critical” cash position. He also points to $5m (£4m) in loans he has provided the company since last February.

The Prime Minister used the £38,500 donation from Mr Tripathi to fund an Embraer Legacy 500 jet to fly him and his entourage of eight staff to the Scottish and Welsh Conservative conferences on 28 April last year.

Last month, i revealed that Mr Tripathi went to a Downing Street reception attended by the PM during the same month. i has seen a picture of what appears to be Mr Triphathi posing for a photo outside No 10 before the reception.

Following PMQs, a spokesman for a senior Labour source told i: “The Prime Minister continues to evade even the most basic questions over this donation.

“Either he didn’t meet Akhil Tripathi last April, in which case he is in the habit of accepting donations worth £38,500 from people he’s never met. Or he did meet him, but is refusing to own up to that fact.

“What exactly does Rishi Sunak have to hide?”

Since 2021, Mr Tripathi has donated more than £150,000 to the Conservative Party.

The Labour Party has called on the Electoral Commission to investigate Mr Tripathi’s £38,500 donation to the Prime Minister and another £50,000 gift to the Conservative Party from a private medical firm.

Labour is demanding answers over the source of the £50,000 donation to the Tory party in November 2022, which was registered with the Electoral Commission as coming from a firm called Balderton Medical Consultants.

The Opposition has asked the watchdog to investigate because the source of the subsequent £38,500 donation to Mr Sunak was listed in the MPs’ register of interests in May 2023 as being from Mr Tripathi before the identity of the source was changed to Balderton in June and then back to the businessman in July.

MPs and political parties are required by law to confirm the true source of a donation before it is accepted or declared.

As well as his donation to Mr Sunak, Mr Tripathi made one of £4,277 to the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) Craig Williams, which also funded the private jet travel last April.

Mr Tripathi is facing a legal challenge brought by a group of investors in the company he co-founded, Signifier Medical Technologies (SMT).

In the Business and Property Court of the Chancery Division, Mr Tripathi is facing a civil legal action by investors in SMT. The claims relate to an alleged breach of duties as director of the company, removal of directors from the company’s board, and payments for the sale of shares.

Mr Tripathi denies all the allegations.

A spokeswoman for Mr Tripathi previously told i: “Mr Tripathi has made a number of donations to the Conservative Party in a personal capacity, including for the costs of air travel for the Prime Minister and colleagues on 28 April, 2023. As far as he is aware, all of these have been disclosed on the public register.

“Any donations made by Balderton Medical are a matter for it. Mr Tripathi can confirm that any donations made by Balderton Medical were not made by him or on his behalf.”