© The SunPhoto-shopped image of David Cameron
Super-rich donors warned the Prime Minister that if he taxed their London townhouses and sprawling country estates they would refuse to host dinners to boost the Conservative Party's coffers.
A senior insider revealed: "The message went out - tax our mansions and you can forget us ever holding another black tie event for you at our homes ever again.
"Cameron could not have funded the party without these events so he had no choice.
"It was all highly embarrassing." The revelation will pump up the pressure on Cameron after the outcry over last week's autumn statement failing to bring in a wealth tax while poorer people were being hit hard with a tough benefits freeze.
George Osborne had been keen on implementing a new high value property tax.
The Chancellor was talked round to the idea by Liberal Democrats, including Business Secretary Vince Cable, who persuaded him it would raise much-needed cash to repay some of the country's massive debt. But the PM intervened after the donors delivered their ultimatum.
He is said to have stopped Osborne going any further with a mansion tax or new council tax banding, hitting homes worth millions.
Lavish Tory fund-raising dinners are regularly held in some of the most spectacular piles in Britain.
But an insider said the message from Tory HQ fund-raising officials was that "almost all" big donors who offered their homes as venues for the party dinners were unhappy.
Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott accused Cameron and Osborne of "performing a hand-brake turn on donor orders".
He told the Sunday Mirror: "The Tories are too scared to make their backers pay more than a £26-a-week council tax on their multi-million pound Mayfair mansions.
"That's not fair, it's feeble."
The people with all those big mansions, monuments and land are not the super rich anymore, they are just what's left of the landed gentry - who used to be super rich - once upon a time.... Now, the super rich are large corporations, multinationals or organisations with tax havens, power and influence. And you'd better believe they are untouchable.
As far as I know, the only person with large amounts of property and liquid assests is the Queen and she's an institution.
A lot of people who inherited large tracts or land and heritige properties can't even afford to maintain the building that they live in. And, they are hit with death taxes too - something that large corporations don't need to think about.
Well, we know the NHS is bankrupt, I guess it's not so far to believe that the country is heading that way too.