Labour accuses Conservatives of resorting to 'lawfare' to shut down questions about 6-figure donation from Ehud Sheleg

• Labour raised questions about a donation from Ehud Sheleg traced to his pro-Kremlin father-in-law.
• Stephen Kinnock MP said a minister threatened a libel suit over his "legitimate questions" about it.

Labour accused the Conservatives of using "lawfare tactics" to shut down questions about a six-figure donation that has since been traced to a pro-Kremlin former politician from Ukraine.

Last week, The New York Times reported that the Conservative Party accepted more than £450,000, purportedly from the millionaire art dealer and former Tory treasurer Ehud Sheleg.

But documents filed with the National Crime Agency suggest the money originated from the Russian account of Sheleg's father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov.

"We are able to trace a clear line back from this donation to its ultimate source," Barclays bank wrote in a January 2021 alert to the UK's law enforcement body, according to The Times report.

As a result Anneliese Dodds, chair of the Labour party, wrote to her Conservative counterpart Oliver Dowden asking him to launch an urgent investigation into the matter.

Sheleg has donated £3.7 million to the Conservative Party since 2010. He also donated £10,000 to current Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis.

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Dodds noted that her colleague Stephen Kinnock had written to Lewis back in 2019 regarding the affair, which had been reported in Private Eye.

Lewis, then the Conservative party chair, wrote back to Kinnock saying he should "consider any accusations you are making against an individual carefully so as not to risk libel."

Dodds told MPs this carried with it "the implication that legal action would be forthcoming should my honourable friend pursue his genuine concerns."

She called for Lewis to apologise to Kinnock, as well as to respond to his original query.

Speaking after the debate, Kinnock said: "We know that London has become a laundromat for dirty Russian money – and it is deeply concerning that the same might be true of the Conservative Party.

"The decision by Barclays Bank to red-flag Ehud Sheleg to the National Crime Agency following his huge donation to the Conservatives makes it clear that the party has serious questions to answer about Mr. Sheleg's financial contributions, and his role as Treasurer.

"What is utterly staggering is that when I posed legitimate questions about Mr. Sheleg to the Chair of the Conservative Party in 2019, Brandon Lewis, rather than conduct an investigation he instead threatened to sue me for libel – using the very same 'lawfare' tactics that Russian oligarchs have been using to prevent important scrutiny of their financial affairs.

"Aside from the obvious security concerns, it is also important that the Electoral Commission urgently investigates potential breaches of electoral law."

Dodds also asked a series of questions about Sheleg, including whether he hosted a reception with the Russian ambassador to the UK following Russia's annexation of Crimea, and whether electoral law has been broken "and relatedly has our national security been compromised".

Neither the Conservative Party nor Lewis's office responded to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Sheleg told Insider: "The NYT's allegations are a fabrication and Ms. Dodds has unfortunately been sucked in by the paper's outrageous distortion.

"The facts are that Mr. Kopytov, Sir Ehud's father-in-law, is a Ukrainian victim and is no Putin 'ally.' He is currently a refugee in the Czech Republic, having lost his job as a senior civil servant when the Russians annexed Crimea in 2014 and more recently he has had his Crimean assets put on the Russian 'nationalising' list.

"Mr. Kopytov has not made a donation to the Conservative Party, whether through Sir Ehud or by any other means. It's completely untrue. The whole agenda-driven story is deeply offensive to Sir Ehud and his family, particularly given the unjustified war in Ukraine."