Boris faces ‘cash-for-access’ claims: Leaked papers ‘show wealthy Tory donors on advisory board were invited for regular meetings with key Downing Street aides’

• Boris Johnson facing claims about ‘cash-for-access’ system in Downing Street
• Sunday Times said ‘advisory board’ of donors had meetings with key No10 aides
• Tory sources pointed out any lobbying against lockdown was not successful  

Boris Johnson is facing cash-for-access claims today after allegations that wealthy Tory donors were invited to regular meetings with key Downing Street aides.

The Sunday Times said thousands of leaked papers showed an elite ‘advisory board’ of donors had the chance to provide feedback on critical policies.

Members of the group are reported to have lobbied for quick relaxation of lockdown measures in 2020, and urged restraint on taxes for the super-rich.

Labour said the claims raised ‘national security questions about the cash-for-access culture’ under Mr Johnson – although there is no suggestion rules were breached or that policy changed. 

According to the newspaper, four of the 14 members of the board are billionaires and altogether they have donated £22million to the Conservative Party.

The pitch from the party chairman to join the group – created shortly before Mr Johnson became PM in July 2019 – was said to be: ‘You are going to give us the money, and the advice, we need to stay in power.’ 

No minutes are thought to have been taken of the meetings, and civil servants did not attend. 

Boris Johnson is facing cash-for-access claims today after allegations that wealthy Tory donors had regular meetings with key Downing Street aides

Among the members of the advisory board were Lubov Chernukhin (pictured), 49, the wife of former Russian deputy finance minister, Vladimir Chernukhin – who came to London in 2004 after falling out with Vladimir Putin

The members are said to have included:

• Lubov Chernukhin, 49, a former banker who is the wife of former Russian deputy finance minister, Vladimir Chernukhin – who came to London in 2004 after falling out with Vladimir Putin. Ms Chernukhin is alleged to have commissioned research raising concerns about the economic impact of higher taxes on the ultra-rich. 
• City tycoon Lord Spencer of Alresford, 66, who has given more than £2.4million to the Conservatives.
• Philip Bouverat, 64, who is said to have taken part on on behalf of JCB chairman Lord Bamford, a long-standing Tory supporter.
• Jamie Reuben, the 34-year-old co-owner of Newcastle United, who has reportedly donated £816,000 to the Conservatives. 

The Sunday Times said that while Conservatives insisted government and party activities were separate, many meetings of the board amounted to seminars by top No10 advisers. 

They reportedly included the PM’s former chief of staff Lord Udny-Lister. 

‘It was implied that what we said would go straight up to the PM,’ one source told the newspaper.

Ms Chernukhin declined to comment on claims she lobbied against high taxes for the ultra-wealthy.

But sources told MailOnline she had commissioned some research, and floated the idea of scrapping tax for those earning below £25,000 as part of a wider reform agenda.  

Other unspecified board members were said to have vented frustration at lockdown restrictions. A Tory source told MailOnline that given the curbs in place during the pandemic any donors who pushed for that were ‘clearly not influencing very much’.

Labour voiced concerns about the arrangements set up under Tory Party co-chair Ben Elliot (left). The PM’s former chief of staff Lord Udny-Lister was reportedly among the key aides who met the advisory board of donors

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds said: ‘These revelations raise serious national security questions about the cash-for-access culture that Boris Johnson has created at the heart of government.

‘The prime minister appointed Ben Elliot as co-chairman of the Conservative Party, he sanctioned the creation of a secret club of super-rich donors that gets privileged access to ministers, and he has chosen time and again to turn a blind eye to unacceptable conflicts of interest. This is on him.

‘Boris Johnson must explain what donors with links to Putin’s Russia got in return for their six-figure annual membership fee and clarify whether these meetings had any impact on government policy at the height of the pandemic.’

Lord Udny-Lister told the Sunday Times: ‘I attended the advisory board when asked.’

The peer said he could not recall a specific board meeting on May 15, 2020 – the same day as Mr Johnson was pictured enjoying cheese and wine with aides in the Downing Street garden.

‘I attended as the PM adviser and speaking to the party was something I did and with parliamentarians. I was in Downing Street nearly every day throughout the pandemic,’ he said. 

The newspaper said that all the board members either refused to comment or did not respond to requests for comment. 

A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that, on occasion, senior Conservative politicians, just like senior Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians, do in fact attempt to raise funds for the party they represent.’

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