Dover MP Charlie Elphicke was given £6,000 by the owners of the former Manston airport site to help his election fighting fund, it has emerged.

The MP received separate donations of £3,000 from Trevor Cartner and £3,000 from Chris Musgrave, the pair planning a £1bn redevelopment of the former Manston airport as a business park.

The donations were registered in March in accordance with Parliamentary rules. The money was used to host a dinner at which the Chancellor George Osborne was the guest speaker.

Mr Musgrave said he had no comment to make about the donation, saying only that he had made it in a private capacity.

A statement issued later on behalf of the two men, said:

“We are frequently approached by politicians of all shades and by private individuals and organisations seeking donations. In this case we each made a personal donation which was used towards the cost of a dinner hosted by Mr Elphicke in London. The dinner was attended by many local people and the guest speaker was the Chancellor, George Osborne.”

It added: “It was a way of saying a thank you to Mr Elphicke and the Chancellor for the support they have shown in the development of Discovery Park.The site now hosts 115 companies and 2,200 jobs, it is regarded as the blueprint for successful business parks and is recognised as the country’s leading Enterprise Zone.”

Mr Elphicke was re-elected in May with a majority of 6,294 and has recently been appointed a government whip.

He said the donations came after he had approached various businesses for support for his campaign. He knew the two through their involvement with developing Discovery Park, the former Pfizer base.

“I asked a range of local businesses about supporting me. They wanted to support my campaign because they understood that I was pro-business and a supporter of the Discovery Park and they believed I would be good for jobs and the economy in east Kent.”

He said the donations did not mean that he was at odds with the two Thanet MPs Sir Roger Gale and Craig Mackinlay, who are campaigning for Manston to be revived as an airport.

“On Manston, everybody knows that Roger Gale and Craig Mackinlay are leading on that and I support my fellow members of Parliament in Thanet and what they are doing.”

The Dover MP has previously called on the government to consider extending the current East Kent Enterprise Zone to Manston, a move he said “would make Manston airport ready for businesses in the aviation sector with aircraft recycling, hi-tech engineering and training.”

The existing zone covers Discovery Park, the former Pfizer site at Sandwich.