The Welsh rugby captain donating money to a Tory MP
A deep dive into who really owns our politicians in Wales
Oh you are in for a treat this week.
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I have spent the last week going through every single Welsh MP’s declarations of financial interests. MPs have to declare any financial interest or benefit they get which “others might reasonably consider to influence his or her actions or words as an MP”.
There were some very tasty nuggets including a former Wales rugby captain donating £7,500 to a Conservative MP and tens of thousands of pounds pouring into a single Welsh constituency.
I have been doing this annual delve into who really owns our Welsh MPs for many years and it has unearthed some incredible (if somewhat shocking) discoveries. Here are some of the things I have found out previously:
Conservative MP and former secretary of state for Wales Alun Cairns received two tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show in both 2011 and 2012 worth over £2,200 from a Japanese tobacco company.
This was at the same time the Vale of Glamorgan MP voted against a bill banning smoking in cars carrying children and vocally opposed plain packaging on cigarettes.
Mr Cairns must certainly go down as one of Wales’ most hardworking MPs given that at one point he was holding down three jobs in addition to his role representing the good people of the Vale.
For these he is paid £60,000 a year for just over four hours work a week. One of these was being senior adviser to Newport-based company Veezu Holdings Ltd who run Amber Cars and Dragon Taxis. For this he receives £15,000 a year, paid monthly, for "providing strategic advice".
He also started working as a senior adviser at the Crumlin-based BBI Group in 2020 which he was also paid £15k a year. Interestingly BBI Group was part of a group of businesses paid by the UK Gov to develop Covid anti-body tests and also to manufacture Covid-19 tests.
Another former Welsh sec and current Secretary to the Treasury Simon Hart has also receive significant donations. He previously received a total of £41,231.66 across four separate donations from long standing Conservative supporter Alexander Temerko who is a Ukrainian-born energy businessman who was previously an arms tycoon.
Mr Temerko, who in the 1990s held a series of positions in Russian state agencies under the Defense Ministry in charge of supplies and armament and was a prominent figure in the team of Boris Yeltsin, has donated over £1m to the Tories. Here are pictures of him with David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Alun Cairns and Rishi Sunak.
What have I found this time?
Going through these declarations is a bit of an epic task but it is well worth it. Not just because of the insights you can get into potential conflicts of interest that could underpin an MPs decision making but because it can give you a flavour of the wider politics currents that are flowing round Wales.
Let me give you some examples…
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