Wife of former Putin Minister gave £70,000 to Priti Patel’s leadership campaign… only to see her knocked out in the first round

Patel’s register of interests shows that Lubov Chernukhin made the donation on the 12th August which was accepted on the 13th August.

The wife of Russian’s former deputy finance minister, gave a whopping £70,000 to Priti Patel’s leadership campaign only to see her knocked out in the first round of voting.

Patel’s register of interests shows that Lubov Chernukhin made the donation on the 12^th August which was accepted on the 13^th August.

Former Home Secretary Patel was knocked out of the Tory leadership race to replace Sunak yesterday, with Robert Jenrick winning the first round of voting.

MPs voted on Wednesday afternoon to narrow the list of candidates vying for the leadership to five, ahead of further rounds of voting over the next two months. Former Immigration minister Jenrick came out on top during the first round, with 28 votes, while Patel received only 14.

That means Chernukhin’s £70,000 donation to Patel’s leadership campaign worked out £5,000 per vote.

LFF readers would have heard of Chernukhin before. She was revealed to have also been on a secret ‘advisory board’ which had direct access to Boris Johnson when he was PM, the chancellor Rishi Sunak and a raft of other senior ministers.

Chernukhin, a former banker, is the wife of President Putin’s former deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin.

Lubov Chernukhin is said to have lobbied against higher tax for the ultra-rich and is the largest female donor in British political history, having donated £2 million to the Conservatives from 2012 to 2020.

Chernukhin once gave £135,000 to the Tories in exchange for an invite to a ladies’ night dinner at a luxury hotel with Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet in April 2019. She has also twice made winning bids at an auction for tennis matches with Boris Johnson.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward