City financier Jeremy Hosking donates £850,000 to Standpoint magazine

Standpoint, a British political magazine with an “unashamedly highbrow” mission, has turned to City financier and Brexit party backer Jeremy Hosking for financial support.

Founded in 2008, with an advisory board that includes Tory leadership candidate Michael Gove, artist David Hockney and former chancellor Nigel Lawson, Standpoint has opted to accept £850,000 from Mr Hosking after ending talks with Chris Rokos, a multi-millionaire hedge fund manager, over a rival proposal.

Mr Rokos is one of the UK’s most successful traders and a major donor to the Conservative party. He co-founded hedge fund Brevan Howard and now runs his own firm.

Having interviewed a number of candidates for the position of the magazine’s editor last year, Mr Rokos set up a company at the start of this year to own the centre-right magazine. However, the deal fell apart in recent months after his financial terms were not accepted by the trustees, said two people familiar with the matter.

Mr Hosking, a former Conservative party donor who has switched to backing Nigel Farage’s new party, donated the money to Standpoint in recent months, according to three people familiar with the matter. Discussions are continuing as to whether he will own an equity stake in the magazine, one of the people said.

A spokesman for Mr Hosking, a co-founder of London-based Marathon Asset Management, said he would “not comment on speculation regarding charitable donations from Jeremy Hosking”.

A spokesman for Mr Rokos said he had been approached last year by the trust that owns the magazine with a request for financial help. 

“Discussions were held during which Mr Rokos initially expressed an interest in becoming involved financially,” the spokesman said.

“But during the protracted conversations it became clear that there was little meeting of minds between the parties. The rightwing direction of travel of Standpoint was in fact at odds with Mr Rokos’ more centrist views, and he decided not to pursue the idea.” 

Mr Rokos, an opponent of Brexit because of concerns over its potential damage to trade, is still hoping to own a publication, said a person familiar with the matter.

Dabbling in political publishing has form among City figures. In 2016, Clive Cowdery, the insurance entrepreneur, bought Prospect, a left-leaning politics, economics and arts magazine, via his Resolution Foundation.

Standpoint is ultimately owned by a charity, the Social Affairs Unit, but has been searching for new backers after it got into financial difficulties. A spokesman for the charity’s trustees declined to comment.

Other hedge fund executives have used their fortunes to bankroll political publications. Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies has been a financial supporter of Breitbart News, the conservative website.

Paul Singer of Elliott Management has contributed financially to publications including Commentary magazine, the Washington Free Beacon online news site and Manhattan Institute’s City Journal magazine.

In the UK, Paul Marshall, one of the founders of Marshall Wace and a supporter of Brexit, backed the launch of website UnHerd in 2007, which was initially run by journalist Tim Montgomerie. 

Standpoint has declared that its mission is to “to celebrate our civilisation, its arts and its values — in particular democracy, debate and freedom of speech — at a time when they are under threat”.

The magazine is owned by a UK-based company called Social Affairs Unit Magazines, which in turn is owned by the Social Affairs Unit. The charity seeks to “advance the education and learning . . . in social, cultural and economic affairs”.

The magazine has a monthly circulation of about 10,000, according to a source familiar with the matter. The charity behind it is still proud of The Times newspaper’s 1989 description of it as being “famous for driving its coach and horses through the liberal consensus”.

Its last filed accounts, for the year to June 2017, show net current liabilities of £36,180. The charity’s latest accounts are 45 days overdue, according to filings.

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This article has been amended since initial publication to clarify that it is the charity owner of Standpoint rather than the magazine that is proud of The Times newspaper’s description of it.