Conservative ministers agreed to hold meetings with the controversial payday loans company Wonga in exchange for payments to the party, Source: The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

The meetings took place at the Tory Party conference last week despite the new party chairman, Grant Shapps, previously describing the activities of some payday lenders as “obscene”. A Cabinet source privately admitted that “moneymaking” was a key goal of this year’s conference, with companies paying thousands for exhibition stands and events. Controversially, business executives were charged £1,250 for face-to-face meetings with ministers at which they were invited to help “develop” business-friendly policies. Wonga confirmed it had sent a representative to meetings with ministers from the Department for Business and the Treasury.

Payday loans firms have been described as “legal loan sharks” for preying on the poorest workers who cannot make their income stretch from one pay cheque to another. The lenders are worried that the Government or financial regulators will cap the interest rates they charge, which can add up to 4,000 per cent a year. Wonga was censured for employing “aggressive and misleading” debt collection practices by the Office of Fair Trading earlier this year. The Daily Telegraph learnt that ministers including Sajid Javid, the economic secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, the Treasury’s exchequer secretary, and Michael Fallon, the enterprise minister, were available for the meetings. Each spent 20 minutes at a table with representatives of businesses that had paid to send delegates to the conference. Participants nicknamed the sessions “speed dating” because executives were given a short time to express their views....Read more here: Loan firms wonga buys the ears of ministers