Tory donor's husband 'given $8m by Kremlin-linked oligarch'

BBC Panorama claims relate to Lubov Chernukhin, who donated £1.7m over eight years

A Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin has secretly funded the husband of Lubov Chernukhin, a Russian-born donor to the Conservative party, according to the BBC’s Panorama programme.

Chernukhin has given £1.7m to the Conservatives over the past eight years. In February, she bid £45,000 at a charity auction to play tennis with Boris Johnson, and previously spent £165,000 for another tennis game with Johnson – the then mayor of London – and David Cameron.

Successive Tory Prime Ministers have been utterly complacent and naive about accepting vast slabs of cash from Russian cronies of Putin. The Conservative Party should return every penny it has received from Lubov Chernukhin now.