Mystery of former Time Computers boss, wireless masts and the political donations

A new research tool created by Sky News and Tortoise Media has revealed who is behind the £183 million flowing from business, unions and private donors to fund British politics.

Near to the top of the North West list is a wireless telecoms company based in Blackburn owned by Tahir Mohsan, the secretive former owner of Time Computers and now a resident in Dubai. 

IX Wireless is listed as one of the largest corporate donors with £138,000 donated to 24 Northern Conservative MPs since the last General Election in December 2019.

Registered at Ribble Business Park in Blackburn, the business was formed in 2017, and its ultimate owner has been revealed Mohsan, who’s Time personal computers were advertised by Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy and adorned the shirts of Blackburn Rovers Football Club over two successful seasons 2000-2002, before the business eventually collapsed in 2005 and Mohsan quit the UK for a new life in the Middle East.

Former Stockton MP and now Conservative peer James Wharton is also listed as a director of the holding company, Cohiba Communications. 

IX Wireless has attracted criticism that it was installing phone masts without local consent. One was in the Cheadle constituency of Mary Robinson MP, also a beneficiary of IX donations. 

Scrutiny of the accounts reveal initial losses of £655,000, registered net assets of just £4,669.  A year later it had net assets of £14.6 million and by 2020 it had total equity of £28.5 million.

Sky and Tortoise joined forces to launch Westminster Accounts a first-of-its-kind searchable database that makes it easy for the public to examine the millions of pounds pouring into British politics.

Although the sources are public, they often don’t reveal why the donations are made. Sometimes these are to fund a specialist All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) or to pay for a member of an MPs support staff, as is the case with NatWest paying £15,000 to Jonathan Reynolds MP for Stalybridge and Hyde and Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary.

In other cases MPs register tickets for sporting and cultural events. Liverpool Football Club were cited in declarations from three Labour MPs totalling £2650.

A few more examples that the research tool was able to reveal that may be of interest to readers of TheBusinessDesk.com include:

• The Co-operative Group is one of the largest political donors due to its members decision to continue to fund the Co-operative Party, to which 25 Labour MPs affiliate.
• The University of Bolton has paid over £100,000 to Lincolnshire Conservative MP Sir John Haynes. 
• Former lawyer and Darwen and Rossendale MP Jake Berry was paid £81,000 by law firm Squire Patton Boggs over the period covered.
• The State Bank of India paid £2,770 to Navendu Mishra the MP for Stockport.
• Accrington based furniture business Senator International has continued to support its former employee Mark Eastwood, now the MP for Dewsbury.
• Magnetic North, the digital agency run by Manchester LEP chair Lou Cordwell OBE, registered a donation of £3,200 to Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, understood to be charges in kind for a website for her unsuccessful campaign to be Labour Party leader in 2020.

James Harding, founder and editor of Tortoise Media, said: “Until now, it’s been impossible to make sense of the relationship between money and politics.  Parliament might be transparent in theory, but, by default or design, the jumble of declarations, registers and accounts has made it very hard to understand who gives, who gets, how much and for what. The Westminster Accounts makes all that information accessible for all of us.”

The database covers the entirety of the current parliament – from its start on 19 December 2019 to the most recent disclosures, and makes use of the Register of Members’ Financial Interests: Earnings from secondary employment, cash donations, gifts (including all gifted international travel), and other benefits for all sitting and former members of the current parliament. It also scrapes data from the Register of All-Party Parliamentary Groups: Cash donations, gifts and other benefits for all APPGs that have operated at any point during the current parliament, as well as membership lists for each group.