Tory donor wins legal step for channel cable

Boss of Aquind can apply for judicial review over blocking of plans for sea electricity link to France

TORY donor Alexander Temerko has won the first step in his legal challenge against the Government’s decision to block his plans for a £1.2bn electricity cable to France.

His company, Aquind, has won permission from the courts to apply for a judicial review of the Government’s decision to block planning permission for the project. Mrs Justice Lang at the High Court said the company has “raised arguable grounds which merit consideration at a full hearing”.

Aquind said the project would “help reduce the impact of volatile gas and coal prices” and help “stabilise and reduce the cost of electricity”.

Ministers are scrambling to shore up energy supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas markets into turmoil.

Aquind says its proposed 2GW cable would be able to import enough power to meet about 5pc of Britain’s demand.

It would run under the Channel between Portsmouth and Normandy in northern France.

The examining authority initially recommended the project, but Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, rejected the application in January. He argued he could not “conclude that the proposed route has been justified”.

Aquind’s proposed cable would be one of a growing number between the UK and the Continent that are importing and exporting power every day.

They are becoming more important as wind and solar power form a greater part of the energy system, as they can help balance out intermittent supplies by trading between markets.

Such cables supplied about 8pc of Britain’s electricity in 2019 and National Grid expects they will be able to meet as much as a quarter of annual demand by 2024. The latest, the North Sea Link cable between Norway and Britain, began commercial operations in October, after six years of construction.

The high proportion of nuclear power in France’s electricity mix means that power imported from France to the UK is relatively low carbon.

Aquind’s project met with stiff resistance in Portsmouth among residents concerned about the disturbance from the new infrastructure.

Penny Mordaunt, the Tory MP for Portsmouth North, opposed the project, claiming it would make the UK “less resilient” and damage the environment.

Mr Temerko and Aquind have donated more than £1m over several years to the Tory party and its MPS.

The project is the latest in a series of energy investments for Mr Temerko, who in 2008 became deputy chairman of OGN Group, a Newcastle-based engineer for offshore oil and gas platforms.

Born in what was then Soviet Ukraine in 1966, Mr Temerko spent five years running Russkoe Oruzhie, a firm producing weapons for Russia’s military.

He moved to Russian oil and gas giant Yukos in 2000, but left Russia for the UK as the Russian government started to seize the company.

In 2005, a UK court refused Moscow’s attempts to extradite him saying he would be punished by “reasons of his political opinions”. He has been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, warning that it could trigger famine and calling for a no-fly zone.

Responding to the Business Secretary’s rejection of the project in January, Mr Temerko highlighted the need to bring down high energy prices.

Aquind said yesterday: “The interconnector will help integrate a greater proportion of non-fossil fuel energy sources and intermittent renewables into Great Britain’s energy mix.”

The Government declined to comment. No date has yet been set for a judicial review hearing.