Hedge fund boss and former UKIP donor Crispin Odey gave £10,000 to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign.

Boris Johnson has received £10,000 from Crispin Odey, a hedge fund boss who made millions betting against the pound in the wake of the 2016 referendum.

Odey made £220 million betting that a Leave result would cause the pound to crash, boasting the following day that “the morning has gold in its mouth”. He has continued to place bets against UK assets as the Brexit process drags on, and renewed his bet against the pound in February. It is estimated that households are £1,500 worse off since the Brexit vote as a result of inflation and lower growth.

Back in 2009, Odey threatened to leave the country and relocate to a tax haven over the increase in top rate of income tax to 50 percent. The most recent accounts for his hedge fund, Odey Asset Management, reveal that it is ultimately owned by a firm based in Switzerland. A Guernsey-based subsidiary of the hedge fund, Odey Wealth Management (C.I.) Ltd, says that it was “launched in 2008 to manage portfolios for offshore private clients”, while the firm’s website lists funds based in Ireland and the Cayman Islands.

The hedge fund boss has previously given hundreds of thousands of pounds to pro-Brexit campaigns and the Conservative Party, as well as £32,000 to UKIP under Nigel Farage’s leadership. It makes him the second former UKIP backer to get behind Boris Johnson after Mayfair club owner Robin Birley donated £20,000 to his leadership campaign earlier this month.

Details of the donation were revealed in the latest Register of Interests published today under Odey’s first name Robin.