\n<\/p>\n
Reform UK\u2019s deputy leader, Richard Tice, accepted a \u00a31,400 stay at the French Riviera home of Lubov Chernukhin, a Conservative donor and the wife of Russia\u2019s former deputy finance minister, new filings show.<\/p>\n
Tice enjoyed accommodation valued at \u00a31,000 and meals worth \u00a3400 between 4 and 6 August at the Chernukhins\u2019 property on the Mediterranean coast, listing the purpose as \u201cdiscussing gas power in the UK\u201d, according to the register of MPs\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n
The MP for Boston and Skegness, who led Reform before Nigel Farage, is also the party\u2019s energy spokesperson and a critic of the drive for net zero.<\/p>\n
Chernukhin is a businesswoman who has given more than \u00a32m to the Conservatives since 2014, including famously bidding for a tennis session with Boris Johnson at a party auction.<\/p>\n
She is a British citizen and former banker who has been under scrutiny over her links to offshore wealth and her husband\u2019s former membership of Vladimir Putin\u2019s government until he was sacked in 2004. Chernukhin has previously stressed that she and her husband have no links to Putin\u2019s regime and that she has condemned Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Lubov Chernukhin, left, leavng a Tory fundraiser at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2022.<\/span> Photograph: Eleventh Hour Photography\/Alamy<\/p>\n According to Companies House, the couple set up a new company called Satellite Energy Systems in January of this year, with Chernukhin, who is resident in the UK, listed as a director and her husband, Vladimir Chernukhin, who is resident in Italy, as the owner. On LinkedIn, the company describes its purpose as: \u201cWe provide net zero energy where it is needed. We are in our customer\u2019s orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n Labour said Tice\u2019s decision to accept the hospitality from Chernukhin was \u201ctroubling\u201d and questioned why the Reform deputy leader was listening to \u201cvested foreign interests\u201d on the subject of UK gas power.<\/p>\n Asked why he accepted the hospitality, Tice told the Guardian: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a shortage of electricity in this country, and we face the risk of rationing and blackouts and what we need is more gas power plants and Lubov is interested in developing such a thing and wanted to talk to me about it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said if people wanted to invest in the UK energy system with reliable and cost-effective generation, creating jobs in the process, \u201cthen I\u2019m going to push that and promote that as much as I can\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cFrankly, my diary is so busy here that it\u2019s the ability to do that, to spend some hours talking about it \u2026 I don\u2019t have meetings in the UK more than an hour and a quarter with anybody. So the ability in recess is just to take a bit of time out.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Asked about Labour\u2019s criticism, Tice said Vladmir Chernukhin was forced to leave Russia 20 years ago and that \u201cfrankly, we probably should have listened and learned from him some time previously\u201d. He also highlighted that the Chernukhins are British citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Labour criticise it, I might just remind them of that when we face higher energy bills and rationing because we haven\u2019t got enough electricity in this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tice said he was not expecting Lubov Chernukhin to start donating to Reform as she was a Conservative, and added: \u201cThis is about getting people to invest money in the UK as opposed to invest elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Lubov Chernukhin said: \u201cLuba is a British businesswoman, philanthropist and investor focused on promoting inward investment, local economic growth and charitable initiatives both in the UK and abroad. As a result, she has multiple business interests and meets with a range of stakeholders. Luba remains a committed Conservative supporter and does not influence policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reform UK\u2019s deputy leader, Richard Tice, accepted a \u00a31,400 stay at the French Riviera home of Lubov Chernukhin, a Conservative donor and the wife of Russia\u2019s former deputy finance minister, new filings show. Tice enjoyed accommodation valued at \u00a31,000 and meals worth \u00a3400 between 4 and 6 August at the Chernukhins\u2019 property on the Mediterranean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[9643,12883,1609,456,838,697,16293,1931,12258,2268],"class_list":{"0":"post-27257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-accepted","9":"tag-donor","10":"tag-french","11":"tag-home","12":"tag-reform","13":"tag-richard","14":"tag-riviera","15":"tag-stay","16":"tag-tice","17":"tag-tory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}