Minister hits out at Tory colleagues for continuing to do business with donor after he called her a security threat

• Penny Mordaunt has hit out at colleagues for continuing to meet Alexander Temerko after their public dispute.
• The donor said Mordaunt was "an absolutely uncontrollable woman" and "the biggest threat to security".

A minister has criticised Conservative colleagues who are continuing to meet with Alexander Temerko after the major donor called her the "biggest threat to security".

Penny Mordaunt, a trade minister and former defence secretary, has told Insider that MPs who accepted donations from the Ukranian-born businessman before their very public dispute "will have had no knowledge of these issues", adding: "But everyone does now."

Her intervention comes after Temerko held meetings with senior Tories this week.

Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign secretary whose unsuccessful leadership campaign in 2019 was supported by Temerko, met him on Thursday, Insider has learned. The pair had lunch at the high-end Corinthia hotel near Westminster.

Meanwhile Temerko was seen in Parliament's Pugin Room with Wales Secretary Simon Hart, former Wales Secretary Alun Cairns, and Conservative peer Baroness Emma Pidding on Wednesday, Politico reported.

Temerko is the co-owner of Aquind, a firm trying to develop a £1.2 billion project connecting British and French power grids under the English Channel. Permission for the project was blocked by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in January. Temerko, a former Russian arms industry chief, is now seeking to overturn that ruling through a judicial review.

Mordaunt, whose constituency is in Portsmouth, the proposed site on the English side for the Aquind project, warned it could pose a threat to Britain's energy security but was not involved in the decision.

However, after the proposal was blocked she became the focus of Temerko's frustration. He told The Sunday Telegraph: "The real threat to national security is Penny Mordaunt - absolutely uncontrollable woman."

He also alleged Mordaunt had broken the ministerial code, threatened legal action and said he would write to Johnson to discuss her future as a minister.

Temerko has since backed away from his plans to take legal action against Mordaunt.

Mordaunt told Insider that the party's code of conduct "should apply to all members including donors".

She added: "Donating to a political party is a social good. It enables democracy and good things to happen in our communities. I know that the donor community feel doubly let down when someone does not abide by the behaviour we expect.

"As an MP I am shocked that a party donor has threatened me just for doing my job and representing my constituents. His comments speak for themselves. Donors don't control MPs. Donors don't get to decide what MPs do or think."

"In the context of what is happening in Ukraine I want to make it clear my concerns about Mr Temerko have nothing to do with his heritage or former employment," she said. "It has everything to do with his behaviour towards me and my constituents.

"Nor do I have an issue with colleagues or associations who have historically accepted donations from him in good faith. They will have had no knowledge of these issues. But everyone does now."

"Members of Parliament should not be threatened. Our democracy should not be undermined. Bullies should not be tolerated," she added.

Mordaunt was the first woman to be made defence secretary, a role she held from May 2019 until July 2019, when Boris Johnson carried out his first reshuffle as prime minister. She had supported Hunt's rival leadership campaign.

Hunt told Insider: "Alexander Temerko is a Ukrainian-born British businessman who has spent his life standing up to Putin and as such encountered considerable personal danger.

"It was a privilege to meet him yesterday to express my condolences over the family members he has just lost back home as a result of Putin's evil war."

Since 2014, Temerko has personally given more than £730,000 to the Conservatives. Aquind has given nearly £440,000 to the party, £72,500 of which was received by Hunt. Offshore Group Newcastle, a dissolved firm Temerko was director of, gave nearly £475,000 between 2012 and 2015. His son, Vladimir Temerko, gave £8,000 to the party in October 2021. All donations were legal and properly declared.

Pidding, a former senior official in the party, wrote to an EU agency in support of special regulatory treatment for Aquind along with Conservative MP Andrew Percy, who had received £10,000 from Temerko, this reporter wrote for The Times.

Tory MP David Morris had to apologise to the House of Commons after receiving £10,000 from Aquind and a month later asking the government to lobby the UK energy regulator to change rules to support the company.

Temerko is the co-owner of Aquind with Viktor Fedotov, a secretive Russian-born oligarch whose involvement with the firm was revealed by The Times.

A spokesperson for Temerko did not provide a comment by the time of publication.