British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s honoring of the Egyptian-British billionaire Mohamed Mansour with a knighthood sparked widespread controversy as he is one of the largest donors to the Conservative Party, according to what the newspaper reported.telegraph” British.
The newspaper reported that the British Prime Minister awarded Mansour a knighthood for services to “commercial, charitable and political work,” among a list of honorees that was announced in an unusual manner.
Mansour, who served as Minister of Transport in Egypt from 2006 to 2009, during the era of the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, gave 5 million pounds ($6.3 million) to the Conservative Party last January, which at the time constituted the largest donation. An individual the party has been receiving for more than 20 years.
He was also appointed Conservative Party Treasurer in December 2022.
UK Reform Party leader Richard Tice criticized Sunak’s decision to announce the honors, saying: “The nation is fed up with the Tories and their obscene cronyism. Give them a few million pounds and get a peerage or a knighthood. The whole thing is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Labor Party, Anneliese Dodds, said: “This is either the arrogant act of a privileged man who has stopped caring about the opinion of the public, or it comes from someone who does not expect to be prime minister for a long time.”
“Either way, it shows a blatant disrespect for the position he should be proud to hold,” she added.
According to the Telegraph, Mansour has donated to several charitable causes, including the King’s Foundation and a memorial for Covid victims.
Mansour previously spoke of the Prime Minister in good terms, saying that he “understands how growth is generated in the modern economy.”
Commenting on being honored with a knighthood, Sir Mansour said: “This award is the greatest honor in my life. I am very grateful,” according to a statement published by the Mansour Group.
The statement added that Mansour is “one of the most important entrepreneurs in the world, and he is the president of Man Capital, an investment company based in London, that works to support the strategies of leading companies and provides them with long-term capital in various sectors around the world.”
He pointed out that “Mansour Group operates in many markets and sectors, including automobiles, industrial equipment, sports, financial markets, retail, technology, and logistics services.”
The statement noted that the late Lotfi Mansour, Mohamed’s father, “studied at Cambridge University in the 1930s, before establishing his successful project in the cotton trade in Egypt after World War II, a model that inspired Sir Mohamed Mansour to commit to hard work and engage in charitable activities.” .
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Mansour’s honor came within a list that came to light, far from the lists that are usually announced in the New Year and the King’s birthday in June, which is highly unusual and will raise speculation about holding early elections in the summer, according to the Telegraph.
The list also includes honors for four Conservative MPs who were loyal to Sunak, including Philip Davies, the husband of Minister Esther McVey.
Director Christopher Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas, who achieved great success at the Oscars, also received knighthoods and knighthoods, a move that critics said, according to the Telegraph, was “an attempt to give some kind of credibility to the list.”
Downing Street sources tried to play down speculation that June or July elections might be on the cards, stressing that going to the polls in the fall “remains the goal.”
But the surprise honor list will be seen as an attempt to boost support before the elections, according to what the British newspaper says.
The list was also full of honoring cultural figures and figures involved in the development of artificial intelligence, as government sources told the Telegraph that Sunak “saw in the list an opportunity to recognize British victories in the film awards season, and the success of the artificial intelligence summit held before the end of 2023.”
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