LORD SAINSBURY, the science minister and leading Labour donor, intends to become the first Briton to give away at least £1 billion in his lifetime.

After leaving government, he will direct the trustees of his charity, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, to draw up plans to spend both its income and its capital before he dies to ensure his wishes are not thwarted.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville told The Sunday Times: “If you want to do more innovative and risk-taking things it is easier to do them with a donor who is living.”

He said that he expected to pledge all of the funds in his foundation to good causes before his death.

The foundation has made or pledged £500m in charitable donations since he created it in 1967, at the age of 27, and the remaining £321m in its reserves will continue to generate tens of millions in income.

The value of the foundation is linked to the fortunes of the troubled Sainsbury’s supermarket chain. It will rise if the strategy under Justin King, its new chief executive, is successful.

The announcement will be considered carefully in the City because Sainsbury’s has been at the centre of persistent takeover speculation.

Sainsbury’s statement indicates that he is considering when to start the sell-off of Gatsby’s estimated 5% shareholding in Sainsbury’s. Friends also suspect he will sell a proportion of his personal 18% shareholding in Sainsbury’s further to endow the foundation.

Michael Pattison, director of the foundation, confirmed that Sainsbury had been inspired by Andrew Carnegie, who believed that the rich had a moral obligation to give away their fortunes. By his death in 1919 he had given away $350m of his estimated $480m.

In today’s money Carnegie gave away the equivalent of $40 billion, exceeding the $29 billion with which Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and currently the world’s richest man, has so far endowed his personal foundation.

Sainsbury’s decision echoes Carnegie’s belief that philanthropists have a duty to ensure their legacy is spent wisely in their lifetime. Sainsbury is in favour of genetic technology and gave up ministerial responsibility for GM policy after a row about his foundation’s investment in Diatech and other plant science companies.

His trustees would not necessarily have continued to fund such causes after his death.

The Labour peer consistently appears in the top three of The Sunday Times giving list. In recent years his foundation has donated between £30m and £50m a year to children’s charities, mental health, education, the arts and plant science.

Sainsbury could easily have taken on the louche manners and lifestyle of his literary hero, Jay Gatsby. He has indicated that the opening lines of The Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald, were a profound influence. The book’s narrator, Nick Carraway, tells of the advice given to him by his father: “Whenever you feel like criticising anyone . . . just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

Sainsbury believes the novel is misunderstood: it is not about wealth and the parties given by Gatsby but about “aspiration and vision”.

George Weston, who runs Associated British Foods, recently pushed Sainsbury into second place in the annual giving stakes but nobody has consistently given as much for so long. Sainsbury and his wife Susy drive a people carrier, buy food from Sainsbury’s and get his shirts from Marks & Spencer. His income from his 18% shareholding in Sainsbury’s and other investments is thought to be about £30m a year. According to The Sunday Times Rich List, the Sainsbury family is worth £1.7 billion, but Philip Beresford, the list’s compiler, says it is impossible to estimate his personal wealth.

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