The multi-millionaire owner of the Blackpool Tower has launched legal action against Times Newspapers over an article containing allegations over donations to the Conservative party.

Business tycoon Trevor Hemmings is suing over a Times story from 4 February headlined: “Tories back slot machines and win tycoon Trevor Hemmings’s £200,000 jackpot”.

The 73-year-old, who has variously been described in the national media as “reclusive and enigmatic” and as a “cloth cap billionaire” who was once a bricklayer’s apprentice, has traditionally shunned the media limelight in his rise to riches.