Nottingham Forest shareholder Sokratis Kominakis donated £100,000 to the Conservative Party

One of Nottingham Forest's owners donated £100,000 to the Conservative Party around a month before Rishi Sunak visited the City Ground. Sokratis Kominakis is a Greek businessman who, together with Evangelos Marinakis, headed up the consortium which purchased Forest from the Kuwaiti Al-Hasawi family in 2017.

Data from the Electoral Commission published on Thursday (June 6) shows that Mr Kominakis made two donations worth £50,000 each to the Conservatives earlier this year. The party received the first donation on February 22, whilst the second was received on February 26.

Around a month after the donations were made, Rishi Sunak visited the City Ground in what was the first trip by a serving British Prime Minister to the stadium. There is no suggestion that the visit and the donations are connected.

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The visit was in fact made just after the Prime Minister had carried out a separate visit in Derbyshire. His City Ground trip was made to back an initiative being announced by Forest on that day, March 22, to expand community sports across Nottinghamshire.

'A new vision for sport' aims to get everyone in Nottinghamshire exercising for at least an hour a week and to eventually host a 'Nottinghamshire Games' event. During his short speech at the start of his City Ground visit, Mr Sunak told Forest officials: "Thanks for everything that you're all doing at an uncertain time for Nottingham because of the city council's financial mismanagement... Do not underestimate the incredible impact you have on the people who come here and support your club."

Mr Kominakis held managerial positions at companies including Vodafone and Procter & Gamble before purchasing Forest as the minority shareholder alongside Mr Marinakis, with the two forming the NF Football Investments Ltd company to purchase their shares. Between 2010 and 2011, Mr Kominakis was vice president of Olympiacos - the Greek to flight Super League club which Mr Marinakis also owns.

The donation figures are contained within the Electoral Commission's regular quarterly report on money received by UK political parties. The parties accepted more donations in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023, with the overall figure growing from £20,968,509 to £22,974,403.

The Conservative Party accepted total donations of £9,124,390 in this first quarter, slightly lower than the Labour Party, which accepted £9,530,789. Louise Edwards, from the Electoral Commission, said: "It is common to see donations to political parties grow ahead of an expected – and now scheduled – general election. They reached £22 million in the opening quarter of the year.

"These figures also reflect the new reporting thresholds, which were changed by the UK Government last year, meaning there is a higher threshold for what parties need to report to us. While there is no limit to the amount that parties can raise, there are spending limits in place for campaigning ahead of elections to ensure a level playing field."