Schmoozer who made a fortune cosying up to Putin’s pals
FOR many in Westminster, Greg Barker is a risible figure best known for helping to organise David Cameron’s much-mocked husky-photoshoot in a glacier. Rewarded with the job of Energy and Climate Change minister in the Cameron government, Barker then attracted more ridicule when he talked vacuously about Britain becoming the ‘Saudi Arabia of green energy’ and of London becoming the ‘global hub of green finance’.
What’s more, those Arctic huskies were not the only dogs in Barker’s life. As a minister, he took his pet dachshund Otto to meetings and, much to disgust of civil servants, he used their kitchen microwave to warm the dog’s cushion.
These bizarre incidents aside, Barker’s new job raises worrying questions about ethics in public life and whether ex-ministers should take jobs with businesses in the same area they had ministerial responsibility.
Compounding the problem is the fact that the firm is owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was at the centre of a Tory party fund-raising scandal a decade ago.
A former colleague of Barker told me: ‘Most former ministers would run a mile from anyone who made their fortune in Putin’s Russia.’
In his new role with the aluminium mining company EN+, Barker will report to Deripaska, who, in 2008, was embroiled in an unseemly political scandal involving then shadow chancellor George Osborne and Labour’s Lord (Peter) Mandelson.
The two politicians met over lunch on an £80million yacht off the coast of the Greek island of Corfu, and Osborne subsequently told the Press that Mandelson ‘dripped pure poison’ in his ear about the then Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.
As a result, millionaire financier Nat Rothschild, who was also there with his friend Deripaska (whose company Rothschild later went on to become chairman of), caused serious trouble for Osborne by claiming the Tory had attempted to solicit contributions to the Conservative party from Deripaska. This would have been illegal, as Deripaska was not resident in the UK.
For his part, Osborne denied the accusation but then admitted he had foolishly discussed with Rothschild, a friend from their days at Oxford University where they were both Bullingdon Club members, how to secure a £50,000 donation to Tory funds from Deripaska.
The fact is that Barker’s business links with Russia go back many years. Before becoming an MP in 2001, Barker, who left his wife in 2006 for a male interior designer, made millions from his connections in the former Soviet Union.
Most notably he was head of communications at Sibneft Oil Group owned by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club. Barker was so integral to the operation he lived for a time in Moscow.
Having made his fortune, Barker was elected MP for the safe Tory seat of Bexhill and Battle and became a cheerleader for Cameron. As shadow climate change minister, he urged his party to pursue environmentally-friendly policies – proposing extra green taxes which would mean people having to pay more for gas and electricity.
Cameron’s ‘hug a husky’ trip in 2006 to show off his concern about global warming, his decision to install a windmill on the roof of his London home and cycling to work (although his briefcase followed in a car) were the most ridiculous examples of Barker-inspired PR stunts. Undaunted, as Energy and Climate Change minister in the 2010 coalition government, Barker was behind the UK’s solar energy push. He introduced big subsidies – only to see the policy reviewed and grants for solar panels cut by 65 per cent.
He courted controversy over his Commons expenses by claiming £43,400 in second home allowances, insisting the house where his estranged wife lived was his main residence.
Later, disillusioned, he stood down as a minister and quit as an MP in 2015, being made a peer. However, he was soon appointed as president of the solar industry trade body.
ALSO, seven of the ten consultancies and directorships he lists in the Lords register relate to the energy field. Of course, this area is a speciality of Deripaska, who is a major funder of the Climate Group, a not-forprofit business organisation, which lists Barker as a director.
With so many business interests, Barker rarely votes or speaks in the Lords.
But in the four times he’s spoken there in the past two years, the subjects have been, surprise, surprise, energy and climate change.