BoJo did play tennis with Russian’s wife

BORIS Johnson admitted yesterday that he and David Cameron played tennis with the wife of a former Vladimir Putin ally in return for a £160,000 donation to the Conservative Party.

Lubov Chernukhin bid for the match with Mr Johnson and the then prime minister in an auction at a Tory fundraising dinner in 2014. She is married to Vladimir Chernukhin, a billionaire who served as deputy finance minister under Putin in the early 2000s before moving to London after falling out of favour with him.

Yesterday the Foreign Secretary confirmed the match went ahead. Defending the donation, he said there should not be a ‘miasma of suspicion’ about all Russians in London. He told the BBC: ‘The Russians themselves are in no way the object of our wrath.’

Last month Mrs Chernukhin, a British citizen, won two more Tory auctions – £20,000 to dine with Scottish leader Ruth Davidson and £30,000 to dine with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.