City broker nets £1,500 for Standard's Dispossessed Fund

A party in aid of the Standard's Dispossessed Fund has raised £1,500.

The £15-a-head night was masterminded by James Sewell, a City broker, who was moved to action after reading about the plight of Londoners struggling to live on the minimum wage.

Launched in March with a shocking series of articles revealing London's most vulnerable residents, the fund has raised more than £4.8million. Hundreds of grants have already been handed out to grass-roots charities in London.

Mr Sewell, an interest rates derivatives broker at MF Global, hosted The White Party at McQueen nightclub in Shoreditch on Friday night.

About 250 people filled the venue, with all ticket sales and five per cent of bar takings going to the Standard's fund.

Mr Sewell, 26, from Canary Wharf, said he hoped the event had raised about £1,500.

He said: "I like to do my bit with charity and when I read about the Dispossessed Fund, I knew I had to do something to help. The story about the paupers' graves was very hard-hitting and I started to read other stories about Londoners trying to live adequately on the minimum wage. I spoke to a few people about it and it spiralled from there. Also, after all the negative publicity banking has received, hopefully this shows we aren't all that bad."

The Dispossessed Fund supports groups and charities that assist Londoners to climb out of grinding poverty and deprivation.