Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab rake in thousands from donors as race to replace May heats up
BORIS Johnson, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab have been quietly raking in money from donors as the race to become the next Prime Minister heats up.
The three Tory Brexiteers received thousands of pounds in the last month from donors and organisations as they mull over whether to run for the leadership.
Theresa May said at the end of March she would step down if and when her Brexit deal passed - which has yet to happen - sparking an immediate clamour for hopefuls to get their campaigns ready.
Boris received an £8,000 gift from JCB in April - the construction firm chaired by Tory donor Lord Bamford.
The Top Tory, who is the current favourite to take over from Mrs May, gave a speech at their HQ earlier this year where he blasted the PM's Brexit deal and called for her to change tack on leaving the EU before it was too late.
J C Bamford's firm has given Boris a total of £29,000 in cash and gifts since the beginning of the year alone.
Earlier this year he was also given 2 donations totalling £36,000 by hedge fund manager Johan Christofferson, who has donated to several Tories in the past.
He also raked in a whopping £170,000 for two speeches in the last four weeks too - one for an address in India.
Boris' Brexiteer rival, Mr Raab, is also set to fight to be a candidate in the upcoming leadership race, but is behind in terms of donations at the moment.
The ex-lawyer this month accepted a £10,000 donation from Toby Ward, an insurance broker.
And in February he received communications training at a value of more than £6,000 from Melior Advisers.
Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, raked in £5,000 from donor Henry Lumley this month too.
Mr Gove stood in the last leadership race in 2016 but was kicked out early on, and Boris dropped out too.
Theresa May went up against Andrea Leadsom, now the Commons leader, but the latter stood down as well.
Tory MPs whittle down the number of candidates to two, who are then voted on by the party's thousands of members.
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Another Tory, Mark Harper, is also planning to run and trying to secure funds.
He's collected £11,000 in private donations in the last month alone.
Others expected to run include Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Health Secretary Matt Hancock too.
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