MATT Hancock has won £100,000 in donations from digital whizzkids to fund a bid for the Tory leadership.
The 40-year-old Health Secretary has attracted support from more than a dozen tech investors and entrepreneurs.
PA:Press Association
His backers show the modern business world is ready to skip a generation and give a more youthful leader a chance.
Mr Hancock’s entry in the MPs’ register of interests will reveal a series of five-figure donations from kay figures in the digital world ahead of the leadership race expected this summer.
One £10,000 donor said: “We want someone who is pro-business and positive about the future of our country.
“We think Matt is that person. He has the youth, energy and optimism to take our country forward.”
Donors include Brent Hoberman, founder of last minute.com, and Jonnie Goodwin, the tech investor described by the FT as “one of London’s best connected media dealmakers”.
‘MATT’S THE PERSON’
Ian Osborne, a tech consultant who was an early investor in Snapchat owners Snap has chipped in, as has Debbie Wosskow, the former box of Love Home Swap, who lead a government review into the sharing economy in 2014.
The Health Secretary has not yet declared that he will stand.
However, he has won admirers for his positive and optimistic brand of conservatism and his track record of getting things done, and is being urged by MPs and donors to run as the “future” candidate from the new generation.
Supporters said the breadth of support showed Hancock was the candidate best placed to lead the party into the 2022 and then 2027 general elections.
An ally of Mr Hancock said: “These people made their names investing in the future and now they’re putting their money behind Matt.”
The Health Secretary has not yet declared that he will stand.
However, he has won admirers for his positive and optimistic brand of conservatism and his track record of getting things done, and is being urged by MPs and donors to run as the “future” candidate from the new generation.
