Leak raises questions over the ultimate source of some of Lubov Chernukhin’s donations
The star prize at last year’s Conservative party fundraising ball was a game of tennis with Boris Johnson. The party’s co-chair Ben Elliot was enlisted to play too. But when bidding started there was little drama. Well-heeled guests already knew who was going to outbid everyone: a tall, outgoing blond woman from Moscow who – as one person put it – “dominates the room”. “She always gets top prize. She wins every auction,” the guest said, wryly.
The victorious bidder was Lubov Chernukhin, one of the biggest female donors in recent British political history. Since 2012, she has given the Tories £2.1m. This extraordinary sum has paid for two tennis matches with the prime minister, including in 2014 when Johnson was mayor of London, as well as dinner with his predecessor Theresa May.
