IN one of those revealing moments, the Tory party leadership managed to annoy even their own membership with a bit of unpleasant arrogance. Conservative Party co-chairman Ben Elliot wrote to all their members demanding money.

“I’ve been reviewing our supporter list and it looks like you haven’t yet made a contribution to our campaign,” Elliot’s email said, under the passive-aggressive headline “does this look right to you?”

The “header” of the email had an equally haughty tone: it was just a bald instruction, saying “Please read and confirm.”

Elliot didn’t thank his Tory members — there are over 100,000 of them — for all their previous support. He didn’t thank them for all the door-knocking they do, or how they hold local Tory associations together, the meetings, the organisation. These are vital voluntary services for any party. They are particularly important for the Tories because their grassroots is weak compared to Labour’s. The weakness of Tory grassroots is one reason Theresa May lost her majority. But Elliot didn’t care about this He just wanted more cash.

If the Tories are arrogant towards their own members, if they just take their hard work for granted, it’s pretty obvious they are going to be even meaner to the rest of us.

Tory members kicked off against Elliot’s email, with one Tory commentator saying it “sets activists’ teeth on edge.”

Elliot’s arrogance was described as a “mis-step,” but it’s one of those accidents that shows how things really are.

Boris Johnson appointed Ben Elliot co-chair of the Conservatives in July. He shares the job with James Cleverley. Reports suggest Elliot is the bigger figure of the two, holding a central role in the election campaign, with Cleverley demoted to mostly appearing on TV.

Johnson picked Elliot, an old Etonian nephew of Camilla Parker-Bowles, because he is, as the Telegraph described him , a “friend to the rich and influential” who “aims to make his mark in politics.”

Elliot makes his biggest mark by running “Quintessentially,” a “luxury lifestyle-management firm.” Quintessentially organises “experiences” for the super-rich. It charges rich people a fee to help them spend their money on exotic holidays, yachting, private tuition for their kids, “personal shopping” for “coveted fashion, rare collectables and unique gifts” and so on.

According to its annual report, Quintessentially has a £23m turnover from its “lifestyle management” and “concierge” services.

It says its “business environment” is made up of the “global high net worth and ultra-high net worth population” which it says means people with a “net worth of £20+ million.” It says its key market of people with more than £20 million in the bank “is set to rise by 42 per cent by 2022.”

So Elliot’s business is crawling around the “high net worth individuals” offering them “experiences.” His knowledge of the super-rich makes him an attractive candidate for Tory treasurer. He’s helped them with personal shopping, or got their kids a personal tutor. Now he can personally ask the super-rich to donate to the Tory party.

There is a horrible symbiosis between Elliot’s business and the Tory Party. Elliot’s “market” is the super-rich. He needs a growth in the number of “High Net Worth Individuals” who have so much money they will pay Quintessentially to help them spend it.

The Tories will increase this number by keeping taxes for the rich low, allowing more tax avoidance and offshore money. They will also go with the deregulation and employment laws that mean the poor can be squeezed even more to pay for the new millionaires to flourish.

Unsurprisingly, crawling to the rich seems to go along with a bullying attitude to the “little people” - hence he helps the rich with “every aspect” of their lives but even ordinary Tory members get no thanks and a demand for money. Tory members were shocked and angry about the mean email they got from their treasurer, but that’s what happens when Boris appoints to the top job one of his posho mates who doesn’t know how to deal with more regular folk.

But Ben Elliot has another business that gives a feel for where the modern Tory Party is heading.

He founded and part-owns a PR and lobbying company, Hawthorn Advisors. Elliot is “co-founder” of Hawthorn, a director of the company, and owns around 20 per cent of the shares. Company sources say he is not involved in the “day to day” management of the firm.

Official records show that it lobbies for foreign-owned private-health firms and a company being pursued by the Inland Revenue for millions in unpaid tax. The records show Hawthorn approached either senior government officials or ministers on behalf of these clients.

Hawthorn’s recent clients include a couple of private cosmetic-surgery companies, THFC (trading as Transform) and The Hospital Group. THFC was nvolved in the PIP breast-implant scandal: THFC at first resisted, and then agreed to removing dangerous PIP implants. The company then went bust.

Hawthorn also represented Allied Healthcare throughout 2018. Allied had some 25 per cent of the adult social-care market. Local authorities and the NHS were major clients. Official regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) gave Allied Healthcare a number of “inadequate” ratings and was warning about the firm’s financial stability.

All of these three firms were owned by the German private-equity firm Aurelius, so it seems Hawthorn specialises in representing foreign-owned private healthcare firms.

Hawthorn also lobbied for Lycamobile in 2017 and 2018. This telecoms company has given around £2m to the Tories but faced multiple inquiries over its offshore tax affairs. HMRC are currently pursuing the Lycamobile group for £8.2m that the revenue say are unpaid taxes.

So that’s who sits at the centre of the Tory party. A guy who services the super rich with “experiences,” and runs a lobbying firm representing private healthcare companies and a business being pursued over millions in unpaid tax.