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Tory leader wannabes trouser massive donations as all-out civil war ensues

TORY leadership hopefuls have trousered a quarter of a million pounds in donations over the last fortnight as their party descends into all-out civil war with the long-awaited departure of Theresa May.

Three candidates have amassed the largest war chests with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt each pocketing £100,000.

The staggering sums are revealed in the latest register of MPs’ interests published every fortnight.

Former colonial administrator Rory Stewart has the third-largest piggy bank at £50,500, despite struggling to get more than a handful of Conservative MPs to support his candidacy so far.

Spooky Stewart, whose dad was once tipped to run MI6, is being hyped up by the corporate media as they search for a new centrist to champion after the collapse of Change UK.

His mysterious connections are already paying dividends, raking in £10,000 alone from Khaled Said, the son of Syrian-Saudi businessman Wafic Said — who was an adviser on the notorious Al-Yamamah arms deal.

The former army officer is also not shying away from Russian money, pocketing another ten grand from billionaire financier Lev Mikheev.

Mr Stewart has defended the donations by insisting that a significant donor was an English beef farmer, and that he had placed a £10,000 cap on donations.

However his war chest pales in comparison to the leadership frontrunners Mr Hunt and Mr Johnson — who have raised twice as much.

Both men supported Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen during their time as Foreign Secretary but claim to differ over Britain’s future relationship with Europe.

Hard-Brexiteer Boris is popular with construction magnate Lord Bamford, who handed over £20,000 from his own account and another £8,000 from his JCB heavy equipment firm.

Mr Bamford is one of the Conservative Party’s largest donors and his support for Mr Johnson will send a strong signal to MPs about who he wants to take over from Ms May.

Meanwhile Mr Hunt, who bungled over the NHS before he butchered Yemen, has taken nearly £9,000 from private equity firm Moulsford Capital Limited for office space, which will give him extra room to run his leadership bid.

He also took an eye-watering £25,000 from First Corporate Shipping Ltd, the owners of Bristol Port.

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