A tycoon who gave the Conservatives £2 million was revealed to have ties with Russia.
Amit Lohia, known as the “Prince of Polyester,” owns a Russian textile company as well as one of Asia’s major petrochemical companies.
“It’s shameful that the government party has been taking donations from a Russian-linked petrochemicals executive, 18 months after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski said.
Mr Lohia, 48, is vice chairman of Indorama Corporation, which his millionaire father created, and a non-executive director of Indorama Ventures.
According to climate investigative website DeSmog, the company is a majority shareholder of global hygiene fabrics firm Avgol, which has a production line in the Tula Oblast region, 120 miles south of Moscow.
There is no evidence that Mr Lohia or Avgol did anything unlawful, but the Prime Minister has accused opponents of additional North Sea oil and gas licences of backing “Russian jobs.”
According to the Electoral Commission, Mr. Lohia’s contribution to the Conservatives’ electoral war chest was the second greatest this year.
It followed a £5 million investment into Conservative coffers in January from another entrepreneur implicated in Russian business dealings.
Billionaire Mohamed Mansour, who worked in the late Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak’s cabinet, was appointed senior treasurer of the Tory party in 2022.
He was a co-owner of the UK-based Unatrac as well as a subsidiary that supplied machinery to Russia’s oil and gas industry. It was announced in May that the corporation was ceasing operations there.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, there was an exodus of foreign corporations.
“This raises legitimate questions about the relationship between money and influence in British politics, which are all the more alarming when major party donors include those with business links to Russia,” said Rose Zussman of the anti-corruption group Transparency International UK.