PM: I WON’T RETURN RUSSIAN CASH
May resists calls to hand back £135,000 from wife of ex-Putin crony
THERESA May has insisted she will not return £135,000 paid to the Tories by the wife of one of Vladimir Putin’s ex-ministers for a night out with her and female members of her Cabinet.
Despite mounting criticism, the Prime Minister insisted last night that the donation was above aboard because Lubov Chernukhin had become a British citizen.
But Sir Alistair graham, the former head of Britain’s sleaze watchdog, joined opposition parties yesterday in urging the Tories to return the money.
Mrs Chernukhin, whose husband Vladimir was a finance minister under Mr Putin, successfully bid the six-figure sum at a Tory fundraising auction for the dinner, which was held at the five-star goring Hotel in London on Monday.
She was entertained by Mrs May and six Cabinet ministers during a threecourse meal of asparagus, beef Wellington and Eton mess.
The £ 135,000 bid takes Mrs Chernukhin’s donations to the Tories past £1million in seven years.
When Mrs May became Prime Minister in 2016, her aides said she would take a different approach to her predecessor David Cameron, who had been criticised for taking £160,000 from Mrs Chernukhin so she could play in a tennis match with him and Boris Johnson.
A senior political source said at the time: ‘She thinks it is sensible to sup with a long spoon when it comes to Moscow, and that wasn’t always the case under the previous administration.’ Sir Alistair, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said of the £135,000 yesterday: ‘Why didn’t they just apply their common sense if there is a bit of a question mark over whether it was acceptable funding?
‘i think they should give the money back if there’s been a serious question mark about accepting money from this woman on previous occasions, if there’s concern and worry over the russian connection - particularly because russians have been attempting to carry out assassinations in the UK.
‘it’s not acceptable that this money is being used to fund a political party.’
Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, said: ‘it beggars belief that Theresa May and her senior Cabinet ministers are cosying up to russian oligarchs who have the means and interest to buy access to top Tories. This stinks of corruption. The Tories must immediately return the money and start standing up for the integrity of our democracy.’
SNP MP Stewart McDonald said: ‘Many will rightly question why so much money is flowing from the household of a former Putin finance minister – donated in the name of the wife – into the Tory Party.’
However, Downing Street rejected calls to return the money. A spokesman said: ‘The donations the Conservative Party receives are declared transparently and in the proper way.
‘The PM has rightly been robust about clearly very worrying activities that we laid at the door of the russian state – that’s very different. We have never said we have any quarrel with the russian people, and in this case we are talking about a British citizen’.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also defended the decision to accept the donation, adding: ‘All our donations are legal and declared.
‘if you look at the robust line Theresa May has been taking against russia in the last couple of years, she bows to no one in her determination to uphold the rules-based order that russia is trying to undermine.’
‘This stinks of corruption’