Oxford Tory society loses university recognition after failing to pay a dinner bill

An Oxford Tory society has been expelled from the University after it failed to pay a £1,200 dinner bill.

The Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) is an 88-year-old society and is recognised as a platform for future Cabinet ministers.

Its former members include five current Cabinet ministers and it counts Margaret Thatcher as its patron.

It has now however lost all University recognition and is not allowed to use the word ‘University’ in its title.

The black tie charity dinner was held at the Cavalry and Guards Club on Pall Mall and Liam Fox, former defence secretary was the guest of honour.

The dinner for 32, held in 2009, was in support of the Army Benevolent fund.

The military club have tried to chase the £1,215.06 unpaid bill but no one has taken responsibility for who was meant to have sent the cheque.

After an examination of club accounts and minutes, the proctors – the academics in charge of enforcing Oxford’s rules – have therefore refused to allow the association to register as an official University organisation.

The Senior Proctor, Laurence Whitehead said: “the financial and administrative officers of the Association did not reach the standards required of a recognised club.”

The unpaid bill was only revealed during a five-month investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic behaviour at the Association’s weekly Port and Policy events.

A video was leaked to the press of members singing Nazi-themed drinking songs and mocking members with working-class backgrounds. These allegations however did not lead to action from the proctors.

The £35-a-head dinner was organized by then chemistry student Max Lewis, who is now an investment banker at Rothschild.

He said: “I was not an officer. This was an OUCA’s event. I did not have access to the accounts. We had agreed it would be paid by the treasurer.”

“I assumed it has all been paid. I am annoyed that officers of OUCA would act in such a careless way.”

Payments went through the hands of George Farmer, the club’s social secretary and Andrew Mason, the club treasurer.

Farmer is the son of Michael Farmer, a City financier and Conservative Party donor and is now an analyst at Jefferies & Co investment bank, and Mason is waiting to go to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

Mason said he placed the cheques in the club’s bank account and a bill for the event was sent to the society after he retired as treasurer.

“The accounts for my term as treasurer were signed by the association’s executive and the senior member, and the university proctor were provided with a copy. No concerns were raised at the time and there is no evidence of any financial impropriety.”

Miles Coates, the current president of the Association said: “We inherited significant problems this academic year from our predecessors. It all began when I was at school, and it falls to me to deal with it now.”

The full bill was finally paid earlier this year and Coates has said that the club would make a £100 donation to a soldier’s charity to compensate.

The disassociation is retrospectively active from the beginning of this academic year and is effective for at least two terms. A University spokesman has said that the proctors would advise the club on how to get itself re-registered at a later date.