A former Tory minister was paid £6 million last year by a company linked to an ally of Vladimir Putin. Lord Barker of Battle received the sum in 2019 from EN+, an energy company in which Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire oligarch and friend of the Russian president, has a 35 per cent stake. However the payment – some of which Lord Barker received when he was a full member of the House of Lords – has never been disclosed to Parliament because House of Lords rules presently do not require it. The sum – disclosed in EN+’s annual report – comprised a salary of $1.9 million and a “discretionary bonus” of $5.9 million, making him one of the UK’s highest earning peers. Lord Barker – who as Conservative MP Greg Barker was Climate Change minister from 2010 to 2014 – joined the board of EN+ in October 2017 as independent chairman, before becoming executive chairman in February 2019.
Telegraph 19th Sept 2020 read more »