Gary Lubner, Philanthropist and UK Labour Party Donor On How He Wants to Change Lives

In a recent interview with The Times, philanthropist and former Belron chief executive Gary Lubner discussed his backing of the UK Labour Party and several humanitarian initiatives. Lubner headed the global glass-repair company until 2023; since stepping down, he has concentrated on philanthropy and political donations.

In 2021 Gary Lubner met the then shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves at a dinner for business leaders. Their conversation opened doors for Lubner to provide the Labour Party with funding, which he continues to donate today.

According to his interview with The Times, the former Belron CEO was impressed by Reeves and visited her in parliament a few weeks later. However, he was surprised by Labour’s limited resources which had left Reeves booking same-day train tickets as she didn’t have support from a personal assistant. Keen to assist, Lubner paid to hire a personal assistant for Reeves. In the years since, he has gone on to donate more than £5 million to the party, plus funds to other progressive left organisations.

Lubner’s Donations and Political Support

Lubner’s donations have since proven transformative to Labour, which has relied heavily on membership fees and trade union donations. Lubner’s broader aim is to “change the lives of millions of people.” This is only possible “when you’re working with the government,” he told The Times.

Lubner is far from the first to provide financial backing for the Labour Party, but previous supporters often came with strings and controversy. Instead, Lubner plans to donate over 95% of his wealth to important causes with nothing in return.

A friend of the prime minister told The Times that “the thing about Gary people find difficult to understand is that he is the closest thing there is to a straightforwardly good person in politics. He doesn’t want profile. He doesn’t want to influence policy. He doesn’t want a peerage.”

Although it’s rare for an individual to receive praise like this in the world of politics, think-tank heads, special advisors, and cabinet ministers share the sentiment.

Supporting the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust

Lubner grew up in apartheid-era South Africa with his white, Jewish family. However, due to the family’s wealth and race, he was not exposed to apartheid. Speaking with The Times, he reflected on living “in separate suburbs,” attending “a white school,” and only meeting Black people who were “domestic servants or labourers.”

At the time, Lubner’s father and uncle, amongst many other industrialists, knew South Africa’s prime minister PW Botha. They donated to the National Party once in the 1980s but later became close with Mandela.

PW Botha’s successor FW de Klerk, who released Mandela, has said that the Lubners “did not support apartheid, they supported the abolition of apartheid.”

Like his father and uncle, Lubner also became close with Mandela. He joined the board of the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust in the 1990s and is now a trustee of the organisation.

Critics have examined Lubner’s family history in the hope of finding information they can use to discredit him. These attempts have left a left-wing website liable to fund a large sum in libel damages. Lubner donated this sum to the World Central Kitchen (the humanitarian charity that has served meals in Gaza) and the Community Security Trust for British Jews.

Early Years in South Africa and Disrupting Apartheid

When Lubner left his state secondary school in South Africa, he received his conscription forms. He chose to join the police and found himself required to enforce laws segregating Black South Africans. Unable to accept this, he falsified paperwork to process cases without punishments and ran ahead of colleagues on raids to warn potential arrestees to leave.

Lubner is keen to place his efforts to “disrupt” apartheid in the wider context of people he “knew very well” who made huge sacrifices by opposing the system of institutionalised racial segregation. These included “people who were murdered, people who were tortured … people who really literally put their life on the line to bring about the end of apartheid.”

Lubner recognises how easy it is for white South Africans to position themselves as anti-apartheid. Because of this, he doesn’t like to overstate his resistance.

“I tried to do my little bit, and I decided by being in a position of power and influence as a South African white policeman, that actually there was quite a lot I could do to disrupt what was going on,” he said.

Latest Philanthropic Efforts

In the years that followed, Lubner founded an anti-apartheid group, Jews for Social Justice, while studying accountancy at the University of Cape Town. He then moved to Britain and worked for Belron between 1991 and 2023.

Lubner recalls his fondest memories here as those involving employees of all races and backgrounds working together. He describes the workforce as “incredibly diverse,” “full of immigrants,” and “full of classic working-class people.” Closing his tenure at Belron, Lubner gifted each employee €10,000 from shares he encouraged fellow executives to give up with him.

Having retired, Lubner is now making political donations and financing social cohesion projects and asylum and refugee charities in provincial towns across the UK. He is also continuing his proudest work: funding early years and youth unemployment charities in South Africa. While many wealthy donors seek recognition for their efforts, Lubner, in his own words simply wants to change lives – which seems to be exactly the impact he’s having.