UK Conservatives appoint former Mubarak minister to fundraising role

The UK’s ruling Conservative party has appointed an Egyptian billionaire and former Mubarak-era minister as senior treasurer, according to a report in The Guardian. 

Mohamed Mansour, who served as transport minister under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, was given the role by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday night during a reception for donors. 

Mansour is the owner of Unatrac, a British construction supplier owned by the Egyptian Mansour Group, which The Guardian said has donated over £600,000 to the Conservatives. 

'The prime minister is making the hard choices that are necessary during a tough period for the country and I look forward to working with the team to support the party and the country'

- Mohamed Mansour

Mansour told the Guardian: “It is a great honour and privilege to have been appointed as senior treasurer of the Conservative party and a member of the treasurer’s team of the party. 

"The prime minister is making the hard choices that are necessary during a tough period for the country and, as a proud British citizen, I look forward to working with the team to support the party and the country.”

The Conservatives denied that he had been made "the treasurer", but a party source told the Guardian he was given a separate role as “senior treasurer”, which would involve fundraising ahead of the next general election. 

Mansour is the chair of Mansour Group, an Egyptian family-run conglomerate that includes Man Capital, a private investment subsidiary and Manfoods, the owner of the McDonald's food chain in Egypt. 

Mansour was Egypt’s transport minister between 2006 and 2009, just two years before Mubarak was removed from office during the 2011 revolution. 

Mubarak's 30-year rule over Egypt was defined by cronyism and repression, with a state of emergency imposed throughout his three decades in power. 

The longtime ruler, who died in 2020, was charged alongside several of his associates with corruption and killing protesters. 

But many of the sentences were overturned after current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seized power from Egypt’s first democratically elected president in a 2013 coup.