Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
2ND TORY IN RUSSIA ‘DIRTY MONEY’ ROW
Peer is chair of Kremlin energy giant
A SECOND senior Tory is being paid by a firm which was slammed by MPS for its links to Vladimir Putin.
Former Energy Minister Greg Barker, now a peer, is raking in tens of thousands as chairman of En+ Group.
MPS last night called our revelation “deeply troubling” and urged the Tories to act.
The Foreign Affairs Select Committee last week raised concerns about energy giant
En+, which is “controlled by billionaire and Kremlin associate Oleg Deripaska”. Their report on Russian “dirty money” in the UK came just weeks after Donald Trump slapped sanctions on En+ and Mr Deripaska – a close ally of President Putin. The Mirror can disclose that Lord Barker, who quit as MP for Bexhill and Battle in 2015, agreed to become chairman of En+ in October.
MPS said its flotation on the London Stock Exchange a month later was an example of “contradictions inherent in UK government policy towards Russia”. The Mirror revealed last week that former Tory leader William Hague is a paid advisor to a law firm which “facilitated” En+’s controversial flotation. The FASC last week warned the UK is turning a “blind eye” to Russia’s “dirty money” and putting national security at risk.
MPS also said London was being used to hide the “corrupt assets” of President Putin and his cronies. Theresa May promised to distance her party from Russia when she took office, insisting there would not be a “business-as-usual” relationship with Moscow.
She has also said it was
“highly likely” the Kremlin was behind the attempted assassination of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.
Lib Dem international trade spokesman Tom Brake said: “The link between yet another former Tory minister and those close to the Putin regime is deeply troubling. Is the pay cheque enough to sign away their conscience?
“Rather than helping fund ex-tory ministers’ lifestyles, these oligarchs... should be subject to tougher sanctions. The PM should get on with it.”
There is no suggestion Lord Barker is in breach of the Lords’ code of conduct.
Neither En+ nor Lord Barker would comment.