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Mark had £10,000 worth of donations in 2015 before and after the general election, and given to Garnier, presumably, as part of a bigger donation to the Tories from OGN Newcastle.
OGN is an Oil Platform company that sacked most of its 2,000 workers, was in the red, facing closure, yet managed somehow to make a huge donation to the Tories and which then got awarded a Govt backed contract in offshore wind farms worth £10billion. A deal that seems to rest on Scottish Power ordering £150million of turbines whose Spanish owners look instead now to favour their own nationalised ship yards in Spain and so again any deal is in deep bother.
Mr Temerko, a Russian (Ukrainian born) Oligarch wanted for fraud in Russia (and which a British Court Judge refused extradition to for ‘political’ reasons), owns OGN and was on the infamous list of “dinner with Dave Cameron for cash” in 2014 at £50k a pop. Mr Temerko has personally donated £265,230 to the Tories since 2010, while his wind farm firm Offshore Group Newcastle has given £220,425. In 2012 OGN also got a £4.5million grant from the Department for Business, though of course Tory sources insisted it was not linked to Mr Temerko’s donations.
Mr Temerko is a man with some rather unsavoury views having likened refugees to “insects” despite himself having been granted asylum here and who thinks refugees should not be allowed to stay in Europe.
Is this the kind of language and associations that our MP approves of when he’s happy to receive such money?
Stephen Brown said “Why did Mark Garnier get this money? What’s his connection with this company? What’s he expected to do in return? If it was redirected from Tory HQ, why? He is now a trade minister and this money could represent a conflict of interest as he swans about the world stage doing deals in the wake of Brexit. It helped him win this seat in May 2015 as his Tory election spending outstripped everyone else’s in Wyre Forest”.
Unfortunately, this is the kind of vested interests the working people of Wyre Forest are up against in getting someone who truly represents their interests. Garnier should be standing up for them, rather than for the more unpleasant side of big business. So, as people struggle to make ends meet thanks to policies that Garnier is voting for, Mr Garnier has some questions to answer.
Stephen Brown further said “Interestingly, PM Theresa May, is now trying to distance herself from Mr Termenko yet whilst Home Secretary did nothing to alert colleagues to the dangers of pro-Russian Forums within the Tory Party that lead to such donations. She actually attended the kind of fundraisers that sparked the ‘dinner with Dave” scandal herself along with many other Cabinet Minsters. All rather hypocritical. I’m calling for him to pay this money back! In fact, the Tories should pay all the near £500,000 back and clear out their closet. Especially as true to form, Mr Termenko has been holding out supportive olive branches to the PM. If she is truly trying to put clear blue water between herself and Mr Cameron’s regime, then she should do everything in her power to get her MP’s to pay this money back and explain why they got it in the first place”.
The inside story of the Tory election scandal
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/mar/23/conservative-election-scandal-victory-2015-expenses