Labour has asked the Conservatives what checks the party has made on donations received from Russian-linked individuals – and if it could be sure that no cash received came from the Kremlin or others hostile to the UK.

Dan Sabbagh www.theguardian.com

The questions follow revelations about a group of wealthy donors who have given money to the Conservatives and have business links to Russia or other wealthy Russians.

Labour’s Conor McGinn, the shadow security minister, said it was “deeply worrying to see revealed potential financial links between senior donors and Putin’s Russia” and asked about “the adequacy of the processes” by which donors are vetted.

Donors who have made money from Russia or Russians have given £1.93m to either the Conservative party or individual constituency associations since Boris Johnson took power in July 2019, according to calculations made by Labour based on disclosures to the Electoral Commission.

Their ranks include the financier Lubov Chernukhin, the industrialist Alexander Temerko and an energy company he part-owns, Aquind, plus the businessman Mohamed Amersi.

They have donated £700,000, £357,000 and £258,000 respectively, either directly or through linked companies, since Johnson became prime minister, a total of £1.3m. Other donors with business interests in Russia take the total to £1.93m.

Both the Pandora papers, based on leaked documents from offshore financial institutions, published by the Guardian and others last month, and other reporting over the past 12 months have revealed greater Russian links than previously known.

“What checks have been completed on the financial origins of the donations themselves and were any links to hostile state actors discovered?” McGinn asked in a letter addressed to his opposite number, the security minister, Damian Hinds.

The Labour MP also asked whether MI5 had raised any concerns. “Have officials in the Home Office at any point issued internal concerns about the potential implications for the UK’s national security?”

Chernukhin, a Briton since 2011, has donated £700,000 to the Conservative party and is married to Vladimir Chernukhin, a former deputy finance minister under Putin. Documents published in the Pandora papers in October suggest he was allowed to leave Russia in 2004 with assets worth about $500m (£366m) and retain Russian business connections.

The Chernukhins’ lawyers said it was not accepted that any of Lubov Chernukhin’s political donations had been funded by improper means or affected by the influence of anyone else. Vladimir had not accumulated any of his wealth in a corrupt manner, they added.

Amersi advised on a lucrative telecom deal in Russia in 2005 with a company that a Swiss tribunal subsequently found to be controlled by an associate of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Amersi told the Financial Times in July he had made $7m in the country, but only prior to 2008. “Not a penny that I earned in Russia …  has even remotely come close to being invested in the UK political system,” he said.

Temerko is a minority shareholder and co-owner of Aquind, a company that wants to build an electricity interconnector to France. Its majority investor, the Russian-born oil tycoon Viktor Fedotov, secretly co-owned a company once accused of participating in a massive corruption scheme relating to a Russian pipeline.

Lawyers for Fedotov have denied the accusations, while Aquind’s lawyers said the allegations against the Russian company co-owned by Fedotov came from a wholly unreliable report and were completely false.

Aquind has also stressed that Fedotov did not personally donate to the Conservative party, was not involved in the management of the company and had “no influence” over the company’s donations. No accusations were made against Temerko.

In the run-up to the last general election, Downing Street refused to release the Russia report compiled by parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), taking advantage of a procedural loophole to prevent it being released.

When it was finally published, seven months after Johnson’s landslide win, it concluded that Britain’s intelligence agencies had taken their “eye off the ball” when it came to Russia and had made no serious attempt to examine whether the Kremlin had sought to interfere with the Brexit referendum result.

“Fifteen months after the ISC’s report was published, the government’s continued complacency and inaction on the need to face down hostile state threats is simply staggering,” McGinn wrote.

The Conservative party said: “If a British citizen is able to vote in an election for a political party, they also have the democratic right to donate to a political party.

“All donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law. It would be wrong to suggest malign motive on behalf of individuals simply because of the country of their birth.”

Teenagers in the 16 to 19 bracket are driving an increase in covid cases in North Devon and Torridge, according to Devon’s Director of Public Health.

Alex Davis www.devonlive.com

Steve Brown released a statement today to explain the high rates in the North of the county.

Case rates of coronavirus in Northern Devon are among the highest in the country, with levels in Torridge in particular now reaching 713 cases per 100,000 people, compared to the national average, 364 cases per 100,000.

The figures are from the latest available data, released on the government’s Coronavirus dashboard.

While infection rates are almost twice the national average, Mr Brown said that this has not translated into coronavirus-related hospitalisations or deaths.

Mr Brown said: “Case rates across Devon generally are higher than the national average at the moment, and in all age groups, although the 0 to 19 and 20 to 39 age groups are the highest.

“And although we’re seeing positive cases across a range of settings, it is the high case levels particularly in the 16 to 19, secondary school and college-age people, that are driving the increase to some extent.

“There are a few reasons why North Devon and Torridge may be seeing such high rates.

“Both district areas have, until recently, maintained steady and comparatively low case levels, and with that, therefore relatively lower levels of infection-induced immunity within communities.

“Secondly, testing for coronavirus here in Devon is a lot higher that the national average, so it may be that we are seeing higher levels than elsewhere because we’re identifying them.

“We know that the dominant strain across the UK, and in Devon, is the highly transmissible Delta variant, and that too is driving case levels.

“The good news is that the high case levels are not translating into a significant increase in coronavirus-related hospitalisations, nor deaths. People developing the virus may tend to feel unwell, but are not requiring the medical attention that was once required, and they’re getting better.

“The vaccination programme is undoubtedly helping to keep people from becoming seriously unwell, and I urge everyone to take up the vaccine when they’re eligible to do so, including the third doses and booster doses.

“Testing is still important, as too is self-isolating if you test positive with a PCR test. And following the common sense precautions, remembering that this is an airborne virus, of meeting outside where possible, and ensuring good ventilation if gathering with others indoors; wearing face coverings for other people’s protection when in crowded spaces; and washing your hands regularly.”

Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael said: “I wonder if the search by these ministers extends to the shredding room.”

www.independent.co.uk 

No minutes of a key telephone call about a Covid contract awarded to Randox after it employed Owen Paterson as a consultant can be found, a minister says.

MPs were told the failure to “locate” them meant details of the conference call could not be published – just one hour after Boris Johnson bowed to pressure to release details of the contracts.

Labour’s Angela Eagle attacked the “astonishing revelation”, saying: “There have been meetings with no minutes that are official and involve government ministers.”

The Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, also laid bare his alarm – at the start of a Commons debate on sleaze, in which Labour is attempting to force the release of all records.

Sir Lindsay said accurate record keeping was even more important during the Covid pandemic, telling the minister, Gillian Keegan: “I’m very, very concerned.”

Mr Paterson’s work for Randox is in the spotlight after documents appeared to show the firm was awarded a £133m testing contract despite government officials knowing it did not have enough equipment.

The army had to be drafted in to secure the equipment for the Northern Ireland company that eventually won almost £600m in Covid testing deals

Attention has been focused on a conference call on 9 April last year between Mr Paterson and the conservative peer Lord Bethell, the minister responsible for testing contracts, a week and a half after the first contract.

The Sunday Times reported that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was refusing to release minutes of the call.

In the Commons, health minister Ms Keegan was asked to commit to releasing details of the phone call – claiming, at first, that only Randox and Mr Paterson would know what was said.

Under pressure, she then switched tack, admitting to “a courtesy call from the minister to Randox”, but told MPs: “We have been unable to locate a formal note of that meeting.”

Ms Keegan said of “other notes that are available”: “In terms of the minutes, I think we’ve said we will publish things here in the library.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, seized on the comments as an admission “that the government is routinely breaking the ministerial code”.

“When a minister meets an organisation or company an official must be present to keep a record of that meeting,” she tweeted.

Ms Keegan said later the government would sit on its hands in the vote on the release of the Randox contract details, which will allow it to pass with Labour votes.

The government, meanwhile, argued it had not lost the minutes of the Randox meeting, but was unable to find them at present.

But the Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael said: “I wonder if the search by these ministers extends to the shredding room.”

Weak regulation has a dreadful impact on our environment

Paul Millar www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

Dear readers, sleaze and sewage have not just been the talk of the Westminster bubble but the streets of Exmouth too.

We have sea waters which only weeks ago, along with Budleigh and 13 other Devon beaches, were judged to be too dirty to swim in. 

We have an MP whose response days later was to vote against a legislative amendment to ensure water companies took ‘all reasonable steps’ to reduce raw sewage discharge into our rivers and oceans. Instead, Simon Jupp last week backed a government amendment which gives water companies carte blanche to do diddly squat. 

Water companies have handed a total of £57 billion to their shareholders in the 30 years since privatisation. Across Europe, only the Czech Republic joins England and Wales in having a fully privatised water industry. 

Our weak regulatory framework allows for dreadful environmental outcomes, as the residents in Clyst St Mary have experienced, with a total of 11 instances of sewage flooding this year, and toilets being out of action for 60 hours at a time. England’s only colony of wild beavers at the River Otter is being affected by raw sewage being discharged from an overflow site further up the river. The Devon Wildlife Trust, which lobbied Mr Jupp to vote for the amendment in question, is monitoring the beaver population but is concerned that species of wildlife have suffered much greater harm. Many local people cannot understand Mr Jupp’s position. What was he thinking? 

The cosy relationship between big players in the water industry and the Conservative Party should be a concern to us all. It might well explain the lack of will and action to tackle the companies’ performance. It is a fact that membership of the European Union forced us to improve environmental standards. It is deeply concerning that we seem to be moving backwards, at a time when protecting our environment has never been more important.

Collapsed Exeter-based airline Flybe is returning to the skies, but its comeback will see its new head office relocated to Birmingham Airport.

Anita Merritt www.devonlive.com

In March 2020, the airline – which had its base at Exeter Airport and also operated flights from Cornwall Airport Newquay – went into administration with all flights grounded as a result.

Disruption to the aviation and travel industry brought on by the coronavirus pandemic were partly blamed for the firm’s collapse.

Its brand, intellectual property, stock and equipment was bought last year for a nominal fee from administrators by global private equity firm Cyrus Capital which was a shareholder in the old business.

Last November, Devon County Council bought the former Flybe Training Academy at Exeter Airport for £4m to transform it into the Future Skills Centre which is being leased by Exeter College.

The 2021 version of Flybe has now announced it is to have a head office and operations centre at Diamond House next to the airport in Solihull.

It is one of the first new UK airlines to be certified by the Civil Aviation Authority since Brexit and said it planned to serve key regions across the UK and EU, with services launching in early 2022.

It expects to create 200 new jobs to be based at Birmingham Airport with a further 400 elsewhere in the country over the next three years.

The new carrier recently installed airline turnaround specialist David Pflieger as its new chief executive who brings experience from senior roles with airlines such as Fiji Airways and Delta.

Mr Pflieger said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Birmingham Airport, the city of Birmingham and the Mayor of West Midlands to make Birmingham Airport the location of our new headquarters and first crew base.

“It was an ideal choice for us due to its great people and highly skilled workforce, its central UK location and the fact that airport is a global travel hub where local and connecting customers have access to over 150 worldwide destinations.

“Today’s announcement marks the culmination of over 12 months of dedicated hard work by all involved and it would not have been possible without the support of the CAA and the UK Government.

“We plan to provide more information in the coming weeks and months about ticket prices, new routes and destinations and other important news. This is an incredibly exciting time for us and we look forward to sharing more updates in the future.”

Prior to its collapse, Flybe was Europe’s largest regional carrier and flew around eight million passengers a year and employed 2,500 staff.

It was owned by Cyrus Capital alongside Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Group.

Birmingham Airport’s chief executive Nick Barton added: “This is fantastic news for our region’s connectivity needs and it will bring with it some great new employment opportunities.

“Dave’s vast experience in managing start-up airlines and turnaround situations, coupled with the recovery of the Midlands’ economy post-covid, means that Flybe’s return to the skies from Birmingham is a shot in the arm for our airport as well as West Midlands businesses and communities.

“We look forward to working with Dave and his team in preparation for next spring and to launch such a well-known brand here in Birmingham.”