MORNING SERIAL
BUT again this is not a new thing that Covid has allowed, it has merely allowed it to flourish like never before.
Further examples of how entrenched these potential conflicts of interest can be are to be found with the two most recent Welsh Secretaries – Alun Cairns and Simon Hart.
In my role at WalesOnline I have trawled through Mr Cairns’ declarations of interest for the last decade. Donations to his election campaigns extend well beyond the Vale of Glamorgan.
He received significant donations from Alexander Temerko, a Ukrainian-born oil and gas businessman who was previously an arms tycoon, whose companies are involved in infrastructure sectors including offshore oil and gas, offshore renewables, interconnectors and onshore gas.
Temerko has given Conservative politicians more than £1m since the Kremlinconnected entrepreneur was given British citizenship in 2011.
Before the 2019 election a donation of £5,000 was given to Mr Cairns from one of the companies Mr Temerko is involved in, AQUIND Ltd.
In April 2014 he gave another £5,000 in a personal donation followed the same year with £5,000 but this time from another one of his companies, Offshore Group Newcastle Ltd.
Mr Cairns also received two tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show in both 2011 and 2012 worth over £2,200. These came from a Japanese tobacco company at the same time he voted against a bill banning smoking in cars carrying children and vocally opposed plain packaging on cigarettes.
Mr Temerko has also given significant funds to the campaigns of Simon Hart who received £10,000 in 2014 from Offshore Group Newcastle.
The same year he accepted two tickets to the Chelsea Flower show worth £1,404.00 from Japan Tobacco International, when just three months before he 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 and making it an offence to sell e-cigarettes to children under 18.
Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013