One of the Tories' most high-profile celebrity supporters, musician Sir Tim Rice, donated £7,500 to Ukip last year, according to the Sunday Times.
Sir Tim is known to be a virulent opponent of wind farms, and "intrigued" by the rise of Nigel Farage's party having being lunched by the party's treasurer Stuart Wheeler last year.
Rice, an Oscar-winning lyricist behind West End hit musicals and Disney blockbusters including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, the Lion King and Aladdin, was kinight during John Major's time as Prime Minister.
Sir Tim is known to be a virulent opponent of wind farms, and was a key Tory donor
The donation was not made public until now because it fell below the minimum threshold which must be declared, according to the rules of the Electoral Commission.
“I’m glad to confirm to you that Tim Rice has actually been a donor to UKIP,” Wheeler told the paper, adding that the donation was “about a year ago". Wheeler, himself a defector from the Tories, said he had not ruled out asking for further donations.
“On the whole I think there are lots of major problems with Europe. I think we should almost certainly be away, be free from Europe," Rice told the paper, but he refused to confirm amounts he had given the party. He had, he added, also donated to Boris Johnson's London mayoral bid in 2008 "not because he’s a Conservative, but because he’s Boris Johnson.”