David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville

Common card · No. 269785

David John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (born 24 October 1940) is a British politician, businessman and philanthropist. From 1992 to 1997, he served as chairman of Sainsbury's, the supermarket chain established by his great-grandfather John James Sainsbury in 1869. He was made a life peer in 1997 as a member of the Labour Party, and was on a leave of absence from the House of Lords from 15 July 2013 to his retirement in 2021. He served in the government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation from 1998 and 2006. He is a major donor to the University of Cambridge and, in 2011, was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He also made the largest real-terms donation in British political history, giving £8 million (equivalent to £11.6 million in 2025) to the Liberal Democrats in 2019, only surpassed in nominal-terms by the £9 million donation made by Christopher Harborne to Reform UK in 2025.

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