Ex-Tory chair Brandon Lewis joins firm with sanctioned oligarch links

A former chair of the Conservative party is taking a job advising a company set up and significantly owned by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Sir Brandon Lewis will join investment firm LetterOne, founded by billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven.

The former justice secretary who chaired the Tory party in 2018, refused to comment on reports he would earn at least £100,000 a year from the role.

Sir Brandon said his work as an MP is "undimmed" by the extra roles.

According to the MPs register of interest, Sir Brandon already has four other jobs - one of which is unpaid - earning him £150,000 a year on top of his £86,584 MP salary.

He said the time commitment of his extra roles were "modest" and had been approved by Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) - parliament's watchdog on officials taking new jobs.

Sir Brandon, who has held several senior cabinet roles, said his previous ministerial work "involved a much greater time commitment" than his new roles. Despite this, Sir Brandon said he "always continued carried out my duties as MP with care and diligence" for his Great Yarmouth constituency.

Sir Brandon, an ally of former prime minister Boris Johnson, will become a senior adviser to London-based LetterOne, which owns the retailer Holland & Barrett, alongside the company's chair Lord Mervyn Davies, a former Labour minister under Gordon Brown, as first reported by the Financial Times.

The London-based firm recently restructured itself to comply with the UK sanctions regime after Mr Fridman and Mr Aven had their assets frozen following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It has been reported that Mr Fridman, one of Russia's richest men, and Mr Aven still hold 49% of the shares in LetterOne.

Born in Ukraine before the break-up of the Soviet Union, Mr Fridman has been described by the European Union as an enabler of President Putin's inner circle.

The EU also says Pyotr Aven, who created Alfa-Bank with Mr Fridman, is one of President Vladimir Putin's closest oligarchs.

The company itself is not sanctioned, but the pair's shares are frozen and they do not receive any payments from the shares.

LetterOne said it had allocated "more than £45m to support those affected by the illegal war in Ukraine".

In a statement on his new role, Sir Brandon said: "LetterOne has travelled a huge distance since Putin's abhorrent invasion of Ukraine."It is now fully separate from its sanctioned founders and focused on investments that are vital for society as well as being one of the biggest corporate donors of aid to Ukraine."

Anneliese Dodds, the chair of the Labour party, said it was "totally unacceptable" for Sir Brandon to advise a firm "owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs"."It makes yet another mockery of Rishi Sunak's promise of professionalism, integrity and accountability at all levels," she said.

Lord Davies said: "The appointment of Brandon Lewis builds on the decisive changes we have been making following Russia's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine."Sir Brandon brought a "wealth of experience" to LetterOne, Lord Davies said.

"Today's appointment follows the swift, robust and decisive action we undertook to distance [LetterOne] from its sanctioned shareholders," he added.

In a statement, Lord Davies said LetterOne had "sustained 100,000 jobs in over 40 businesses across the UK, EU and US".Sir Brandon made the news in 2020 for receiving money from two British citizens with links to Russia.He took donations of £25,000 from Lubov Chernukhin, a former banker who is the wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, former Russian deputy finance minister under Putin.

Additional reporting by Phil Kemp.