Boris Johnson must return £2.3m of Russia-linked cash donated to Tories, says Starmer

The Labour leader said the UK is "seen as a laundromat for kleptocrats' dirty money" as he claimed Boris Johnson has "enabled" Russian influence in Britain

Boris Johnson must return £2.3m of Russia-linked cash donated to Tories, says Starmer

Boris Johnson has "turned a blind eye" to the Kremlin's creeping influence in the UK and must return £2.3m of Russia-linked cash donated to the Tories, Keir Starmer has said.

The Labour Leader has warned the Prime Minister he must get "serious about tackling Russian dirty money" in Britain as Moscow stands on the edge of war with Ukraine.

It comes as the PM issued a warning to Mr Putin to "step back" from the "precipice" as last-ditch attempts are made to avoid a conflict between Russia and the Eastern European country.

But Sir Keir has said the Conservative Government must first "tackle corruption at home" as he claimed the PM has "enabled" Russian influence in the UK.

Around £2.3 million in Russian-linked cash has been donated to the Tories since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, with around a quarter of the current Cabinet receiving cash.

Ministers whose offices or constituencies benefited include Deputy PM Dominic Raab, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and five other MPs who attend Cabinet.

Sir Keir said: “For a decade, the Tories have not just failed to challenge Russian influence - they have enabled it.

“As a result, the UK is seen as a laundromat for kleptocrats’ dirty money, our institutions have been damaged and an entire cottage industry has grown up dedicated to lobbying for and protecting those close to the Kremlin.

“If Boris Johnson is now serious about tackling Russian dirty money and influence, he should immediately get his own house in order. That means returning the millions of pounds of Russian-linked cash that has been donated to the Tories and their MPs since he became Prime Minister, and reversing his plans to allow unlimited donations from abroad.

“Then he should turn his attention to measures that will provide much needed transparency and clamp down on fraud and abuse. That mean reforming Companies House, creating a register of overseas entities and a register of foreign agents, bringing forward new counter-espionage laws and giving additional powers to the Electoral Commission in order to protect our democracy.

“We cannot afford more dither and delay from a Government that has turned a blind eye to Russian money as long as it helped aid the Tory Party. A failure to act now will only further strengthen Vladimir Putin in his attempts to stalk and menace his neighbours and democracies around the world.”

Among the figures filling Tory coffers is banker Lubov Chernukhin, who is married to Putin’s former deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, has given a total of £1.7 million to the party.

These donations have included bids at fundraising auctions at the notorious Tory Black and White Ball, where over the years she has secured a night out with Theresa May, a tennis match with Boris Johnson and a private dinner with then-Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in the Churchill War Rooms.

She has donated almost £65,000 to the Tories.

In March of last year, the Conservatives also received £50,000 from Access Industries, the firm owned by Len Blavatnik, Britain's richest man with an estimated fortune of £23bn.

Mr Blavatnik is understood to have made much of his fortune in 1990s Russia, where he invested heavily in the state's largest aluminium firm and its third-largest oil producer.

But while many of his contemporaries - who maintained closer links to the Kremlin - have found themselves sanctioned by Western nations, Mr Blavatnik secured British citizenship in 2010 and a knighthood in 2017.

Mr Blavatnik donated to Donald Trump's inauguration fund. While he was not mentioned in the unredacted sections of Robert Mueller's report in to Russian meddling in US elections, it was widely reported that he was under scrutiny from the probe.

And Alexander Temerko, a wealthy businessman whose Aquind firm is awaiting government approval for a billion pound electricity interconnector under the Channel, has also been a frequent donor in recent years.

Mr Temerko, who has been a critic of President Putin, and his firm have given more than £1.6 million to the Tories.

A Spokesperson for Mr Temerko has previously said: “Mr. Temerko is a Ukrainian-born British citizen and has no links to Russia.

“Mr. Temerko left Russia in 2003, following his political persecution in the well-known Yukos Oil Company case by the Putin regime.

“Since then, he has never returned to Russia, nor worked for or partnered with any Russian-linked business.”

The Conservatives have pointed out previously that any British citizen registered to vote in the UK has the right to donate to a political party.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said last week: "I have, and other colleagues in the Conservative Party, received funds from British citizens.

"I absolutely defend the right of any British citizen to play their full part in democracy - that’s voting, that’s donating to political parties.

"Actually to claim otherwise we’re saying that certain parts of British society - some level of British citizen - has less rights than others.

"Some might argue that’s racist. I am absolutely defensive of people’s right to fulfill their full part in the democratic process."