Energy and property tycoons that bankrolled MP Cairns’ campaign
ALUN Cairns MP’s election campaign last year was bankrolled with the help of a London property developer and a Ukrainian energy tycoon, we can reveal.
We have looked through the declarations of interest of Welsh MPs to see who they have received funding from.
Our investigation shows that former Welsh Secretary Mr Cairns, who resigned after questions emerged over his support for an aide who collapsed a rape trial, received significant funds from the property and energy industries.
Over the past decade, the Vale of Glamorgan MP and former AM has received several large donations as well as tickets to expensive events.
In June last year Mr Cairns received a £5,000 donation from Ukrainian Alexander Temerko.
Mr Temerko is a Ukrainian-born oil and gas businessman who was previously an arms tycoon. Last year Reuters wrote a profile of him in which they described the Brexit-supporter as a “former Russian tycoon who quietly wields influence in the British PM race”.
His companies have been engaged in a range of infrastructure sectors including offshore oil and gas, offshore renewables, interconnectors and onshore gas.
In total, Temerko has given Conservative politicians more than £1m since the Kremlin-connected entrepreneur obtained British citizenship in 2011. Reuters reported that he supported efforts to oust former PM Theresa May and aired the fears of critics who question his influence on UK politics.
The most donation to Mr Cairns came from one of Mr Termerko’s companies – AQUIND Ltd.
This is not the first time Termerko has given Mr Cairns cash. In April 2014 he gave another £5,000 in a personal donation. This was followed in September of the same year with £5,000 but this time from another one of his companies – Offshore Group Newcastle Ltd.
It was not just Temerko who contributed to the Swansea-born politician’s election campaign.
London-based property developer Marc Pennick gave him £2,000 in September last year and then another £1,000 in November, right on the eve of the election.
This adds up to £8,000, over 50% of the £15,179.20 Mr Cairns spent on the election.
On three previous occasions Mr Pennick had donated money to Mr Cairns
These donations added up to an additional £11,500 on top of the £8,000 donated last year.
Mr Pennick is a partner at property development company Avanton. Incidentally, Alun Cairns’ former cabinet colleague Sir Michael Fallon is the non-executive chairman at Avonton. Sir Michael was resigned as defence secretary following allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
When the Western Mail approached Mr Pennick asking why he was financially backing an MP in south Wales, he replied: “My donations are made directly from me. Nothing to do with Avanton. I make numerous donations to the Conservative Party and individual MPs.
“My donations to Alun Cairns MP was made because he’s a bloody good MP and works hard for his constituents.”
Mr Cairns also received two tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show in both 2011 and 2012 worth over £2,200. This came from a Japanese tobacco company.
This was at the same time he voted against a bill banning smoking in cars carrying children and vocally opposed plain packaging on cigarettes.
Mr Cairns also continues to make an income from renting out the Cardiff
flat funded by the taxpayer during his time as an Assembly Member.
When we called and emailed Mr Cairns, he refused to respond to our requests for comment.
Mr Cairns was replaced as Welsh Secretary by Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart, and there are some strange similarities between the pair.
Mr Hart has also received some serious cash from Mr Temerko. In 2014 he gave Mr Hart £10,000 from his Offshore Group Newcastle company.
In May 2014, Mr Hart also accepted two tickets to the Chelsea Flower show worth £1,404.00 from Japan Tobacco International.
Just three months before that, Mr Hart was one of only 24 MPs who voted against tabled amendments to the Children and Families Bill which would enable the UK Government to:
■ Introduce regulations requiring plain packaging for tobacco products;
■ Introduce regulations making it an offence to sell e-cigarettes to children under 18;
■ Make it an offence for an adult to buy cigarettes for anyone under the age of 18.
Two years earlier, Hart was one of 50 MPs who wrote to then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley expressing serious concerns over the Government’s plain packaging proposals.
He said: “There is no reliable evidence that plain packaging will have any public health benefit; no country in the world has yet to introduce it. However, such a measure could have extremely negative consequences elsewhere.”
When we called and emailed, Mr Hart refused to respond to our requests for comment.
The recently departed Welsh MP Guto Bebb has also received cash from Mr Temerko totally £24,167 during his time in office.
Other investigations have also found links between the Conservative Party and climate science denial.
The Conservative Party received nearly £1.5m of donations from polluting interests and funders of climate science denial in the past three months, DeSmog analysis shows.
The gifts, published last week by the Electoral Commission, include £12,500 from London City Airport to the “1922 Committee” of backbench Tory MPs and £20,000 from a company that produces steel for North Sea oil rigs. The majority of the party’s donations came from the heavy machinery firm JCB, which has made two donations of £700,000 since the election.
The latest Register of MPs’ Interests shows Home Secretary Priti Patel was among those who received a total of £21,000 from current or past backers of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s principal climate science denial lobby group.
Responding to DeSmog’s analysis, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Alan Whitehead, said the findings cast doubt on the Conservative party’s commitment to its climate agenda. “Businesses rarely hand over money for no reason. The question for the Conservative Party is, what have these companies bought?” he asked.