War in Ukraine: Tories must sack co-chair over Russia links, says Labour

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged the Conservative Party to sack its co-chairman Ben Elliot over his links to Russian donors.

Sir Keir said there was "growing concern" over oligarchs' money and it "should not influence our politics".

Mr Elliott also runs Quintessentially, a company supplying services for wealthy clients, including Russians based in London.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said all Tory donors were properly registered.

Labour claims the party has raised almost £2m from people with links to Russia since Boris Johnson appointed Mr Elliot as co-chairman in July 2019.

Those giving money are all UK citizens, which they have to be under electoral law.

Quizzed about Sir Keir's comments, during a visit to a reception centre for Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Ms Patel said: "All party donations are registered in the approved way and no political parties take money from foreign individuals."

Speaking last month, Conservative foreign minister Amanda Milling said: "Many [donors] are critics of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and it is completely wrong and discriminatory to tar them with the same brush."

Quintessentially arranges luxury services including travel, accommodation, education, parties, personal shopping and weddings for wealthy clients.

In 2014 Mr Elliot, who is the nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall, told the Gentleman's Journal: "Last month we added a dedicated Russian team to our London offices due to the influx in Russian-speaking clients coming into London, so we're still doing very well within the Russian market."

The company opened an office in Moscow in 2006, which is still operating, but its UK-facing website, in its list of 40 worldwide offices, no longer mentions Moscow.

Quintessentially declined to comment on Mr Elliot's role with the Conservative Party.

But a spokesperson told the Financial Times: "The group continues to actively monitor its member base and corporate clients to ensure that it is not servicing any individual or corporate body that is on the sanctions lists that have been issued by the UK, EU and US governments. Moreover, it can confirm that it definitively is not engaged with anyone on those lists."

The company has denied any links with individuals placed under sanctions by the UK, EU or US since President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine last week.

Speaking in Birmingham, following Labour's victory in the Birmingham Erdington by-election, Sir Keir said: "It's in everybody's best interest if Ben Elliot steps back from his role [with the Conservatives] and I think he should actually be sacked from it.

"There's growing concern about the links between the Conservative Party and Russian money. Ben Elliot is at the heart of that. We need to strip Russian money away from our politics and not allow it to influence our politics."

Sir Keir said the risk was that, if the Conservative government did not "go really hard" on sanctions, some people would say it was because the party was "reliant on Russian money".

The UK government has imposed asset freezes on some Russian banks and individuals with links to President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday it sanctioned two more oligarchs - Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov.

Other governments have also imposed sanctions, including, in some cases, confiscating people's assets.

The French authorities seized a super yacht belonging to oligarchs earlier this week.

Recent research by campaign group Transparency International suggests £1.5bn worth of UK property has been bought by Russians accused of corruption or links to the Kremlin since 2016.