Thread by @PeterKGeoghegan

Remember Lubov Chernukhin, top Tory donor whose husband was secretly given $8m by a Kremlin-friendly oligarch before Brexit ref in 2016? Well, turns out Electoral Commission has had concerns about her and other Tory Russian donors for a while (thread)

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

https://twitter.com/openDemocracy/status/1309152094851665922

In internal emails, UK elections watchdog alerted staff to 'interesting donations' from Lubov Chernukhin, flagged Chernukhin in discussions around 'foreign interference' in Britain and queried other Tory donations from Russian-linked businesses. Ultimately, no action was taken

As well as Chernukhin, the Electoral Commission was concerned about a £10k donation from a company owned by ex-Tory MP James Wharton, who worked for Tory donor Alexander Temerko (and was recently made Lord Wharton by Boris Johnson) and donations from Temerko's firm Aquind

Remarkably, in Febuary Electoral Commission found that a series of donations to the Tories totaling more than £100,000 and listed as being made by a company called Offshore Group Newcastle had actually been made by Aquind. But the donations are still listed as OGN on EC's site

Aquind currently seeking ministerial approval to build a £1.2 billion undersea electricity interconnector.

Earlier this month a Tory MP was ordered to apologise for breaking parliamentary rules after he asked a question about Aquind’s interests after receiving a £10k from them.

@RhonddaBryant said “We need a new law to prohibit foreign lobbying. This makes it clear that this is needed urgently...our Electoral Commission has fewer powers to investigate potential legal breaches than virtually any other similar body in a Western democracy.”

Spotlight on Corruption's @susanpjhawley said: “The UK needs to get an urgent grip on how dirty money is compromising our electoral process and in the process our national security."

@MartinJDocherty said that the Conservatives "are taking the public for fools.”