Cash for access: donor boasted over transaction tax veto Mr Spencer, who has given the party £3,624,452 since Mr Cameron became leader, is the chief executive of the City broker Icap plc and the owner of the spread betting firm City Index. Speaking to Risk about the proposed financial transaction tax, he said: "I have had it first-hand from very, very senior members of our administration who I know personally and have had good relations with for a long time, that it will be vetoed without any doubt and without any reservation at all. We think if the French decide to go it alone in imposing an FTT we wish them every good fortune, but there is not a prayer in Hades that the UK will sign up for it. Asked to confirm that he heard it "personally" from a member of the Government, he said: "Yes, indeed." Mr Spencer has also led the campaign to scrap the 50p top rate of income tax. In 2009, when he was still party treasurer and even before the rate had come in, he said he expected "it will be reversed in the foreseeable future." He insisted at the time that he was speaking in a personal capacity, but many commentators believed he was being used by George Osborne to reassure the City that taxes would come down if the Tories came to power. He has since warned repeatedly that the higher rate of tax would cost the country dear. Last month, at the time of his dinner in Downing Street, he was again speaking out against the higher tax band, saying high earners were being forced to move abroad. In the Budget last week, the Chancellor announced that the 50p rate on earnings over £150,000 would be scrapped from April 2013 and replaced with a 45p tax band.