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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Rachel Wearmouth & Dan Bloom

Keir Starmer demands Tories sack co-chairman whose firm boasted of links to 'Russian elite'

Keir Starmer today demanded the Tories sack their party co-chairman whose firm boasted if its links to “ Russia ’s elite”.

Labour have already long been calling for Ben Elliot to be fired, accusing him of “blurring the lines between private business and political office.”

Now Mr Elliot’s fundraising for the Conservative Party, and his directorship of the concierge firm Quintessentially, have come under fresh scrutiny.

Mr Elliot has a major role in sourcing donations for the Tories, who have taken £2m of donations from people or firms with links to Russia since Boris Johnson became PM.

Mr Johnson insists all these donations follow the law, are transparently declared, and it would be unfair to target all people with Russian links.

Meanwhile, Quintessentially has deleted a page on its website which boasts of the services it offers to wealthy Russians.

(PA)

An archived version of the page says: “Quintessentially Russia has nearly 15 years' experience providing luxury lifestyle management services to Russia's elite and corporate members.

“Our office employs over 50 lifestyle managers, each of whom has completed a specialised training program.

“They work around-the-clock 365 days per year to provide personal concierge services to each member.

“From restaurant bookings to backstage concert access, a bespoke luxury lifestyle is at our clients' fingertips.”

Visiting Birmingham after victory in the Erdington by-election today, Labour leader Keir Starmer said: "I think there's growing concern about the links between the Conservative Party and Russian money, and Ben Elliott is at the heart of that.

"We need to strip Russia money away from our politics, not to allow it to influence our politics, but there will always be this danger, if the Conservative government doesn't do really hard on this that people will say well, it must be because you're reliant on Russian money that you're not going more quickly.

"So it's in everybody's best interest if Ben earlier steps back from his role, and I think he should actually be sacked on this."

The Conservative Party have been contacted to ask if Mr Elliot wants to comment.

He defended himself last year after a probe by the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists.

It found Mr Elliot “does not need to register” as a lobbyist, “based on the information provided”.

But it wrote to the 46-year-old advising him “to be cautious about the possibility of engaging in consultant lobbying activity (perhaps unintentionally) by not making a clear enough distinction between his role as a director of Quintessentially and his other activities connected to government.”

Labour called for him to be sacked, but he is still listed as a co-chairman of the Conservatives on the party’s website.

It comes amid furious calls for Britain to go further with sanctions against individual Russian oligarchs - just 15 including Putin and his foreign minister have been targeted so far, including two announced last night.

Roman Abramovich, who is selling Chelsea FC, has not been targeted with sanctions.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab refused to comment on whether Mr Abramovich should be allowed to sell Chelsea, with profits going to Ukrainian refugees.

He replied: “We don’t talk about individual cases before the sanctions are imposed.”

Speaking to the BBC he added: “We have overnight imposed sanctions on Mr (Alisher) Usmanov and (Igor) Shuvalov, but… it is contested and, as Justice Secretary, I can't prejudge these things.

"But, more importantly, we do not want to give advance sight to anyone of the measures that we take."

Mr Raab said sanctioned oligarchs’ homes should “absolutely” be seized to provide homes for Ukrainian refugees - a law being worked up by officials.

Labour leader Keir Starmer agreed, saying: “Well, I certainly think they should be seized and their assets should be taken, whether that's in relation to refugees or Ukraine. What Ukraine once they've made it clear as the strongest possible response in the United Kingdom, across with our allies and with our NATO member countries.

"Together, we have to ensure that Russia is not just isolated, but is its ability to function is crippled through these sanctions."

Mr Raab warned Vladimir Putin could deploy ever more barbaric" tactics to crush Ukrainian resistance.

Dominic Raab said economic sanctions on Russia are "starting to bite", but admitted Britain and allies need to "bed in and have the strategic stamina for the long haul".

He added: "I've said that we can expect that, after the stuttering start to this campaign, that Putin would resort to ever more barbaric measures as he gets frustrated - and that is the next phase that we all need to be alert to, whether it is the sanctions or the steeling of the capacity and the will of the Ukrainian defence."

Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: She said: "For many, many years, Labour has been calling on the Conservatives to, for example, force transparency around property ownership, especially in London where we know that many of these Putin-linked oligarchs have been stashing their funds in property.

“We see, even with the new measures that finally have been extracted from the Government now that they say they will announce on Monday, an 18-month window before they will come into action - that's just not good enough.

“We need immediate action now. We can put those registers of foreign-owned property into place in 28 days, we believe we could get those running and force that transparency.”

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