… On the very day Mrs May was firmly pointing a finger at Vladimir Putin over the Salisbury murder bid, a former Kremlin aide’s wife ploughed the cash into the Tory party’s coffers.

And Lubov Chernukhin gave a further £50,000 to the Conservatives as police investigated the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia – bringing the total donated in the two weeks after the poisoning to £100,000.

Lubov’s husband Vladimir is Putin’s former deputy finance minister.

Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable branded the payment “sheer hypocrisy”.

He said: “The Conservatives should have returned the money straightaway.

The very least they can do is return this now.”

Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery added: “It smacks of hypocrisy for Theresa May to accept tens of ­thousands of pounds from a donor with links to Putin’s regime on the same day she denounced the Kremlin over the Salisbury attack.

“The Tories need to come clean with the public about what checks they have made on the wealth amassed by their super-rich donors.”

It comes after we revealed two Tory peers – Lord Hague and Lord Barker – are both earning thousands of pounds a year from firms slammed by MPs over links to the Kremlin.

Lubov’s gift was on March 12, according to official records seen by the Mirror.

… When she took office in July 2016, the PM said it would not be “business as usual” with Russian donors amid growing tensions between Moscow and the West. But her party has since received more than £800,000 from Russian-linked supporters.

Banker Lubov alone has donated more than £600,000 since 2010.