Calls for party donation overhaul after May dines with Russian
Calls for overhaul of political donations rules after Theresa May and six cabinet members enjoy £135,000 meal with ex-Putin crony’s wife
- Wife of a Russian Oligarch and Putin ally, Lubov Chernukhin, joined Prime Minister and six cabinet ministers for dinner in London on Monday night
- Mrs Chernukhin paid £135k for chance to have dinner at Goring Hotel, Belgravia
- Deputy Lib Dem leader slammed Mrs May for dining out amid Brexit chaos
Fury over a picture of Theresa May at a £135,000 meal paid for by a Tory donor who’s husband used to be an ally of Vladimir Putin has triggered calls for an overhaul of party donation rules.
The Prime Minister and six of her female cabinet members entertained Lubov Chernukhin at the exclusive Goring Hotel in London’s Belgravia on Monday night, it emerged yesterday.
Mrs Chernukhin’s husband Vladimir is former Russian deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, but she is now a British citizen.
The Tory Party insists she is not a ‘Putin crony’ after she donated more than £1million over seven years.
But after pictures of the night out were posted by Liz Truss on her Instagram page, there has been outrage in the Commons and on social media.
1 Karen Bradley, Northern Ireland Sec; 2 Baroness Evans, Leader of the Lords; 3 Caroline Nokes, Immigration minister; 4 Amber Rudd, Work and Pensions Sec; 5 Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the Commons; 6 Liz Truss, Treasury Chief Sec; 7 Theresa May; 8 Lubov Chernukhin
Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson slammed Mrs May for having a night out with party donors amid Brexit chaos.
She said: It has been 20 days since we’ve heard anything from the Prime Minister on Brexit and the talks with Labour appear to be in deadlock and this is the priority.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss posted the picture of the cabinet ministers with Theresa May from the Goring Hotel in Belgravia, London on her Instagram account
‘It makes the case for reform of political donations, especially a cap.’
Former Tory minister Ed Vaisey said: ‘She [Mrs Chernukhin] is a British citizen and her ex-husband is an ex-Putin crony basically in exile for falling out with Putin.
‘I’m sure Theresa May is wondering [about] the Instagram policies of Liz Truss’.
The Daily Mail reported yesterday that Mrs Chernukhin won the chance to dine out with senior Tories after bidding £135,000 for the privilege at the Conservative Black and White Ball earlier this year.
Before Monday’s event she was believed to have donated £903,000 to the Conservatives since 2012 – now taking her total above the £1million mark.
The money will raise fresh questions about the Tories’ links to Russia just a year after the Salisbury spy poisoning.
Lubov Chernukhin’s husband Vladimir (pictured right) is former Russian deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, but she (left) is now a British citizen
President Vladimir Putin (right) is pictured at a meeting with Vladimir Chernukhin (left) at a meeting in 2008
Five years ago, David Cameron faced questions after Mrs Chernukhin successfully bid £160,000 at a party fundraising dinner to play tennis against him and Boris Johnson.
The former PM was accused of hypocrisy over the donation, which came at a time when he was pushing for tougher Western sanctions against Moscow in response to its annexation of Crimea and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
Today’s revelations are likely to lead to similar accusations against Mrs May, who has pledged to get tough on the issue of Russian money and influence in the UK in the wake of last year’s nerve agent attack in Salisbury.
The PM warned at that time that it could no longer be ‘business as usual’ with Russia.
Security minister Ben Wallace went further, pledging a wide-ranging crackdown on Russian money in London.
He said oligarchs could be hit with ‘unexplained wealth orders’ by the courts if they were unable to demonstrate the source of their assets. It was part of a strategy of making life uncomfortable for them in London.
Someone commenting on Ms Truss’s Instagram, which shows Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the Lords, Baroness Evans, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and immigration minister Caroline Nokes, wrote: ‘It’s shameful the amount of Russian money our government will willingly accept from a supposed enemy.’
Both the Conservative Party and Downing Street refused to comment last night.
Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson slammed Mrs May for having a night out with party donors amid Brexit chaos
The Daily Mail discovered that the event was a dinner thrown for Mrs Chernukhin and her friends after she successfully bid for the prize at the ball.
They were served a three-course meal of asparagus, beef Wellington and Eton mess.
A source said: ‘It was bit like Cabinet at the start, very polite, but then a fair amount of wine was drunk and then it became a very relaxed and talkative dinner.’
The guests were also thought to include Lady Nuttall, a fashion designer who had an affair with a cousin of the Queen in the Bahamas, and Lucy Hyde-Dunn, a vet who is the wife of the head of the Dragon School in Oxford.
Louise Petano-Heathcote, who is standing for the Tories in local elections in Oxford on Thursday, is thought to be another of the women in the photograph.
The wife of the artist Peregrine Heathcote commented on the photo on Instagram: ‘Fabulous women, wonderful evening.’
DWP Secretary Amber Rudd (left) and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley, who were both at the event, arriving at this morning’s Cabinet meeting in Downing Street
Electoral Commission records show Mrs Chernukhin was declared an ‘impermissible donor’ in 2012 when she attempted to give £10,000 to the Tories.
Since then, however, she has made donations to the party worth more than £903,000, which have all been accepted, including £389,000 last year.
The £135,000 donation for the auction prize has yet to be declared on the Electoral Commission website.
At last year’s Black and White Ball Mrs Chernukhin won two more auctions – £20,000 to dine with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson and £30,000 to dine with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Earlier this year, Mrs Chernukhin donated £9,500 to the war chest of Tory chairman Brandon Lewis.
The Tories have repeatedly defended taking money from Mrs Chernukhin, saying her husband, Vladimir, who served as deputy finance minister under Putin in the early 2000s, fell out with the president after being dismissed from his job in charge of a state-run bank before moving to London.
There is no suggestion that Mr and Mrs Chernukhin’s wealth is illegitimate.
The Goring is where the Duchess of Cambridge spent her last night as a commoner ahead of her wedding to William.
Both Mrs Leadsom and Ms Truss looked fresh this morning as they arrived for the Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street
Vlad’s ex-minister worth £230m… and wife who’s given a fortune to the Tories
By Jemma Buckley for The Daily Mail
Lubov Chernukhin is a long-standing Tory donor and the wife of former Russian deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin.
She is believed to have given the Conservatives more than £903,000 in donations since 2012.
Mrs Chernukhin, 46, held a Russian passport before gaining British citizenship and settling in London. She and her husband have a £7million mansion overlooking Regent’s Park.
In 2014 she paid £160,000 in an auction at the Tory summer fundraising ball for the ‘ultimate tennis match’ with former prime minister David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
But controversy over her husband’s past Kremlin links provoked an embarrassing backlash after Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine resulted in the shooting down of passenger jet MH17.
In June last year, the Tory party was accused of ‘sheer hypocrisy’ after it was revealed it had accepted £50,000 in donations from Mrs Chernukhin on the same day that Theresa May pointed the finger at Russia over the poisoning of spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
Last year Mrs Chernukhin gave at least £389,500 to the Conservatives. At one point she bid £30,000 to have dinner with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and tour Churchill’s War Rooms. It is unclear whether the event went ahead.
As a British citizen she is eligible to make donations to UK political parties.
But in 2012 Electoral Commission records show she was declared an ‘impermissible donor’ when she attempted to give £10,000 to the Tories. This is thought to have been because she was not on the electoral roll at the time.
Mrs Chernukhin is believed to have married Mr Chernukhin in November 2007. He served as a minister in Vladimir Putin’s first presidency between 2000 and 2002. He then became chairman of Vnesheconombank, a state-owned investment bank.
However, he is said to have fallen out of favour with the Russian president for his loyalty to Mikhail Kasyanov, a critic of Mr Putin, and was dismissed from his role, leading the couple to settle in Britain.
Earlier this year it emerged that City financier Nat Rothschild created a £275,000-a-year job for Mr Chernukhin in 2004 to enable him to get a British visa.
Mr Chernukhin told a court that he fled Russia after being tipped off that he was to be arrested in a swoop on opponents of Mr Putin.
He said that once he had been in Britain for five years, and could obtain leave to remain in the UK, he repaid £1.3million to Mr Rothschild because the job had required no actual work.
Details of the arrangement emerged during a courtroom battle between Mr Chernukhin, 49, and the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, 51, over ownership of a textile factory on a valuable 22-acre site in central Moscow.
Although Mr Chernukhin was a state employee until 2004, the court heard he had amassed £230million at the time from his ‘real estate empire’. He was formerly in a 16-year relationship with Lolita Danilina, who was also dragged into the court battle, although he did not marry her.
Mrs Chernukhin was educated in the United States, studying at Merrimack College in Massachusetts from 1990 to 1995 and completing an MBA at the prestigious Stern School in New York between 1997 and 1999.
In documents filed with the UK’s Companies House, she has variously listed her occupation as banker, investment director and consultant.
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