Sir David Garrard, who has died aged 86, was a property developer, philanthropist, promoter of UK-Israel relations and Labour donor who became entangled in the “cash for honours” scandal before leaving the party in protest at Corbyn-era antisemitism.
Garrard’s wealth derived from his property company Minerva, which developed London office schemes and later acquired the Allders department store chain with an eye to its property development potential. A supporter of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s – he called her “fantastic and wonderful” – his allegiance shifted to New Labour after the 1997 election.
Friendship with Andrew Adonis, Tony Blair’s education guru, led Garrard to give £2.5 million for the foundation of a landmark City Academy secondary school (now Harris Garrard Academy) at Bexley, in buildings designed by Norman Foster. He was also connected through Jewish charity work to the party fundraiser Lord Levy, sometimes known as “Lord Cashpoint”; after a first £200,000 donation in 2003, Garrard followed with a loan of £2.3 million in 2005 – at a time when loans to party coffers, unlike donations, did not have to be disclosed.
It transpired that Levy had raised £14 million for Labour by the “secret” loan mechanism (also well used by Tory treasurers) and that several lenders, including Garrard, had been nominated for peerages but rejected by the House of Lords Appointments Committee. Garrard was interviewed by the police under caution, but no charges ensued.
Part of his loan was later converted to a donation. When he gave another £500,000 in 2014 he said he had come to “respect and admire” the then leader, Ed Miliband. The total of his donations had reached £1.5 million by the time the baton passed to Jeremy Corbyn, but as a leading figure in Labour Friends of Israel, Garrard was appalled by what he observed “with dismay and foreboding” as a rising tide of Left-wing antisemitism. Resigning in 2018, he declared that he no longer felt “any affinity or connection” for Labour; the party he had joined, he said, “no longer exists”.
But when Sir Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn as the party leader in April 2020 and apologised to the Jewish community, promising to “tear out this poison by its roots” and Corbyn’s membership was duly suspended, Garrard declared: “It should be taken for granted that I will almost happily rejoin” – and contacts were duly re-established.
David Eardley Garrard was born in Streatham, south London, on January 12 1938. He was the son of Albert Garrard, an upholsterer of Ukrainian Jewish descent, and his wife Margaret, née Jenkins – but his non-observant parents did not explain David’s Jewish heritage to him until he was 11. After leaving Battersea grammar school he travelled to Israel, volunteered for military service and formed a lifelong attachment to the Israeli cause.
Back in England, he made his way as an estate agent and financial adviser under the mentorship of his sister’s husband Philip Rose, whose family owned Land Investors, a commercial property business, and whose guidance he credited for much of his later success.
In 1986, Garrard led a £70 million takeover of Land Investors, subsequently selling his stake to fund a new property venture, Minerva, which floated on the stock exchange, became a FTSE 250 company and achieved a value of £300 million by the turn of the century. When he retired as chairman of Minerva in 2005, Garrard sold a £35 million shareholding and moved for some years to Switzerland, where he lived in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Geneva.
Besides his interests in education, Garrard was a trustee of the Police Federation and a patron of children’s charities. In Israel he was involved in social housing projects and as a benefactor of Reichman University’s International Institute for Counter-terrorism. He was widely saluted for his contributions to UK-Israel relations.
David Garrard was knighted for philanthropy in 2003. His wife Maureen died in 2011; he is survived by their daughters Hannah and Alanah and by Ava, the partner of his later years.
Sir David Garrard, born January 12 1938, died June 21 2025