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The estranged wife of a green energy tycoon who has given millions of pounds to the UK Labour party accused him on Wednesday of seeking to finalise their divorce in “haste” because he expects to receive an honour from Downing Street and wants to deprive her of a title.
Lawyers acting for Dale Vince’s wife, Kate, claimed the businessman anticipated being given a peerage or knighthood after he bankrolled Sir Keir Starmer’s general election campaign and wanted a judge to sign off on the divorce to prevent her from acquiring one via the marriage.
His barrister, Lewis Marks KC, told a hearing at the High Court that the notion that he expected an honour was the “purest of speculation” and dismissed her assertion as “astonishing”.
Vince, founder of energy company Ecotricity, has donated more than £5mn to Labour, making him one of its largest recent donors.
Others include supermarket scion Lord David Sainsbury and car glass repair millionaire Gary Lubner. Such donations have helped reduce the party’s dependency on contributions from trade unions.
The entrepreneur’s donations to the party are central to a bitter High Court divorce battle with his wife, who argues that he has been “generous with someone else’s money” and “diminished the matrimonial assets”.
She applied to the High Court last month to have the monies “set aside”, which could result in him being required to compensate her for her share of the donations. Marks said her claims were “wholly misconceived”.
At the preliminary hearing on Wednesday, the judge, Mr Justice Nicholas Cusworth, said the matter would be dealt with during subsequent court proceedings.
Dale Vince has also called on the court to declare the marriage dissolved “without further ado”, before the financial matters are finalised.
Lawyers for Kate Vince, represented by law firm Dawson Cornwell, said her husband was seeking to end the marriage in “haste”.
Richard Todd KC, for Kate Vince, said in written submissions that the “likelihood of getting an honour is not just born of his work as an eco-warrior but also from his role as the largest donor to the Labour party”.
“Donors are habitually rewarded with honours,” Todd added.
Marks said Kate Vince was seeking to create a “circus” with such claims, adding it was “astonishing” that she should want “to remain shackled to him”.
In written submissions he added: “It is not for this court to delay the orderly dissolution of this marriage in accordance with the rules because [Kate] wants to be able to call herself ‘Lady’.”
Cusworth said he would rule on the matter of the divorce decree by the start of the subsequent hearing.
The judge lifted some of the standard restrictions on reporting divorce proceedings and allowed the parties to be named following public interest representations from the Financial Times.