Sir David Eardley Garrard (born 12 January 1939) is a retired
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
property developer.
Personal and early life
David Garrard was born
Streatham
Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Streatham was in Surrey ...
on 12 January 1939, the son of a
Stamford Hill
Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the l ...
upholsterer.
He attended
Battersea Grammar School in South London. Garrard is Jewish.
Garrard was married for forty-seven years to Maureen, who became a director of The Garrard Family Foundation and The Garrard Academy. She died in 2011.
Career
Garrard left school at 16 and joined an estate agency.
He co-founded
Minerva PLC with
Andrew Rosenfeld
Andrew Ian Rosenfeld (27 April 1962 – 8 February 2015) was a British businessman who was co-founder, chief executive, and chairman of Minerva plc. He volunteered for a number of charitable organisations and was a major donor to the Labour P ...
, a property investment and development company, whose shares are quoted in the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
FTSE 250 Index
The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...
, and served as its
chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
for many years until his retirement in March 2005.
Before co-founding Minerva, Garrard worked as a financial adviser. In 2008, he set up a venture capital business with his son in law Alexander Salter, but the two fell out when Salter and Garrard's daughter divorced in 2013, leading to a High Court case.
[
Garrard was listed by the Sunday Times Rich List 2005 as the joint 451st richest person in the UK, with a fortune in excess of £100 million, falling to 575th with £95 million in 2009.][ ]
In 2014 Garrard was involved in a legal dispute with his former son-in-law related to an alleged attempted transfer of £2.5 million from a bank account and the appointment of Lord Mendelsohn as a director of jointly owned companies.
Political involvement
Labour Party
In 2002 the first city academy under a new Labour programme, Business Academy Bexley (now Harris Garrard Academy
Harris Garrard Academy (formerly Business Academy Bexley) is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, mixed, all-through school and sixth form with Academy (English school), academy status in Thamesmead, Erith, Greater London, England. It was established i ...
) was opened by prime minister Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
with Garrard as principal sponsor with a financial contribution of £2.5 million. Garrard chaired its governing body.
Before the 2005 General Election Garrard secretly provided the Labour Party with a loan of £2.3 million at a time when loans on commercial terms did not have to be declared,[ to be repaid on 28 April 2007.] Following the discovery of the loan in the course of the Cash for Honours
The Cash-for-Honours scandal (also known as Cash for Peerages, Loans for Lordships, Loans for Honours or Loans for Peerages) was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations and ...
political scandal in the UK, Garrard withdrew his nomination for a peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
.[ The loan was extended, and Gerrard eventually called for it to be repaid in 2015, in a reaction against the election of ]Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
as leader of the Labour Party.[ ]
In 2013, Garrard hosted a visit to Israel by eleven Labour MPs, including shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy
James Francis Murphy (born 23 August 1967) is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2014 to 2015 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 2008 to 2010. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Ren ...
, shadow defence minister Gemma Doyle, Labour Friends of Israel
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...
chair Anne McGuire
Dame Anne Catherine McGuire (' Long; born 26 May 1949) is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stirling from 1997 to 2015. She was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland from 2002 t ...
and vice-chair Louise Ellman
Dame Louise Joyce Ellman ( Rosenberg; born 14 November 1945) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Riverside (UK Parliament constituency), Liverpool Riverside from ...
. He also sponsored the 2014 Labour Friends of Israel annual lunch, which included a speech by Labour leader Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...
.
In 2014, Garrard donated £500,000 to the Labour party, one of the largest private donations under Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...
's leadership. This prompted criticism of "double standards" when the media reported that Garrard had placed shares in an offshore trust
An offshore trust is a conventional trust that is formed under the laws of an offshore jurisdiction.
Generally offshore trusts are similar in nature and effect to their onshore counterparts; they involve a settlor transferring (or 'settling') asse ...
to avoid tax, similar to Conservative donor and co-treasurer Lord Fink
Stanley Fink, Baron Fink (born 15 September 1957) is a British hedge fund manager and politician, who was formerly CEO of Man Group plc. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been a life peer in the House of Lords since 2011.
Early life
...
, whom Labour had criticised.[ ]
Garrard left the Labour Party in March 2018 due to his unhappiness with the party's response to allegations of antisemitism. In February 2019, Garrard added that he had concerns about the nation's future should Corbyn lead the country. "From the very outset of Mr Corbyn’s leadership I had feared the ultra-Left Marxist/Socialist nature of the Labour party’s new leadership and its supporters, all of which led me to conclude that a socialist republic for our nation was what these politicians intend".
After leaving the party, he has provided funding on several occasions to Tom Watson in addition to his support for Change UK
The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...
.
The Independent Group
In February 2019 Garrard provided funding to support the launch of pro-EU political group The Independent Group
The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...
; the amount as reported by ''The Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings.
It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
'' was £1.5 million.
Honours
Garrard was knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in the 2003 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...
.
Charitable activities
Garrard is a patron of children's charity Lifeline 4 Kids, is a trustee of the Police Foundation, and has been a director of the Princes Trust Business Division.
Garrard donated £2.4 million to the Bexley Business Academy (now known as the Harris Garrard Academy), a first- and second-level school, and chaired its governing body. The Business Academy Bexley was renamed the Harris Garrard Academy when it was taken over by the Harris Federation
Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 52 primary and secondary academies in and around London. They are sponsored by Philip Harris (Lord Harris of Peckham).
Description
With 52 academies in London and Essex, the Harris Federation educates ...
in 2017, to reflect the support Garrard had put into the academy.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrard, David
1939 births
Living people
British philanthropists
Businesspeople awarded knighthoods
Knights Bachelor
British real estate businesspeople
Labour Party (UK) donors
Labour Friends of Israel
British Jews