Row over Tory election doomsday clock from China after 'buy local' plea

02 January 2024 , 15:02

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Tory chairman Richard Holden with the Chinese-made clock in the background

Top Tories have come under fire after it emerged a doomsday clock installed at their HQ was made in China - despite the chairman urging voters to buy local.

The device - which features a countdown to the next local elections in May, when Conservatives are expected to face a battering - was installed at the Conservative central office. But critics have demanded to know why they chose not to buy British.

It appeared in the background of a video shared by new party chairman Richard Holden, who last month called on shoppers to support "local grafters and entrepreneurs". The £110 clock, made by Hangzhou Jhering Sports Technology Co Ltd, was manufactured 5,750 miles away in the Zhejiang Province of Eastern China.

A Labour source told The Mirror that Mr Holden would have been better to use a British based company like Oxfordshire-based Wharton Electronics. The source said: “Whatever Richard Holden is counting down to, it’s a shame he can’t support a British company in the process. Wharton Electronics is a great success story for our country, growing from two brothers making stopwatches fifty years ago. Why can’t the Tories back Britain, and get behind a company like Wharton, rather than going for the cheap Chinese option?”

The clock shows the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until polls open for local elections on May 2. Tories are expected to take heavy losses, having been stripped of more than 1,000 seats at the same time last year.

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The remote-controlled clock installed at Conservative HQ is available for £109.99 on Amazon, although the same Jehring model is also available from the Home Decorous website for £82.84. In a rallying cry for Small Business Saturday last month, Mr Holden wrote: Whether it’s your local tea shop, record store or where you buy your fruit and veg, every purchase is putting pounds in the pockets of small shop keepers, and supporting local grafters and entrepreneurs up and down the country."

A Tory Party spokeswoman said: "For context, the countdown clock was bought well before the current Chairman took up his position."

Dave Burke