Shannon McGuigan
The Pandora Papers are a collection of over 12 million documents that were accumulated and investigated by over 600 journalists from 117 countries. They lay bare the shadow economy of the world’s super-elite.
Uncovering the inner working of the finances of 35 current or former leaders, 300 high-level public officials in more than 90 countries across the globe, these papers revealed that such individuals have been using offshore companies and accounts to preserve their substantial levels of wealth.
How do the Pandora Papers affect UK politics?
“To those who still say corruption doesn’t happen here, I say wake up, before it gets even worse”, MP Caroline Lucas said.
Initially, the connection between the Pandora Papers and UK politics may not be glaringly obvious. However, the Pandora Papers have revealed shady dealings and corruption with one of the world’s most established democracies; Westminster.
Politicians from all parties were critical of the government’s role in the huge offshore economy created in London, with a Conservative MP labelling it as the “money laundering capital of the world”.
The Pandora Papers have not only highlighted the corruption within the government but have also brought into question the party funds of our current ruling party, the Conservatives. The Chair of the Labour Party, Anneliese Dodds, stated that there must be serious questions brought forward to Boris Johnson and his party “about their fundraising activities”.
Whilst the Pandora Papers ignited scandal and breakdowns across the globe, with inquiries being issued in Czech Republic, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Australia, Panama, Mexico, India, Pakistan and Spain, in Manchester, the Conservative Party were dodging a long string of questions as a result of the dodgy revelations of the papers at their annual conference.
The effects of dodgy Tory donations
The spotlight on Tory donors has zeroed in on three particular individuals. Mohamed Amersi, Lubov Chernukhin and Viktor Fedotov. The papers reveal that Mohamed Amersi is a prominent donor of the party who largely funded Johnson’s Prime Minister campaign. Mr Amersi also advised on the organisation of a telecoms deal.
This telecoms deal was then revealed to be a £162 million bribe for the president of Uzbekistan’s daughter. His lawyers have denied all suggestions of the illegal involvement of Mr Amersi.
Lubov Chernukhin also donated a significant amount to the Tory party, having given £2.1 million in donations to the party since 2012. However, her donations have come from her husband’s corporations by a slew of complicated transactions.
Her husband, Vladimir, was a former finance minister and state banker under the current President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.
A Russian born oil tycoon, Viktor Fedotov’s firm has also made significant financial contributions to the Conservative Party. Fedotov is the majority owner of UK company Aquind, who have donated over a staggering £1.1. million to the party.
Fedotov has also co-owned a company in secrecy, which has been allegedly partaking in enormous corruption schemes. The lawyers of Fedotov and Aquind both deny all accusations of fraud and corruption.
Conservative response to the Pandora Papers
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “I haven’t read all the different stories about all the different people but it sounds to me like you’ve been doing good work on that and I am all for transparency and getting stuff out there but I can’t talk about the detail.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refuted reports of corruption regarding Tory fundraising claims, stating that “all these donations are vetted in the normal way” under rules constructed “under a Labour government”, he claims.
His colleague and right-hand man, former Chancellor and current Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, remarked that the Pandora Papers are a “good piece of journalism”. However, he claimed to not have read all the revelations that they have brought to light.
Aquind cronyism
As the depth of Fedotov, Aquind and Tory collusions come to light. There is increasing questioning surrounding the moral validity of the construction of Aquinds £1.2million electricity cable between the UK and France. Increasing pressure has been placed on the Conservative government to decide on whether to permit the companies of Fedotov and Aquind to construct this cable.
As mentioned previously, Aquind and Fedotov have both been named within the Pandora Papers due to their suspicious activity and contributions to the Conservative government. A Senior Conservative remarked to the Guardian that allowing the Aquind project to continue would bring serious national security worries to Britain.
The decision of this ever-pressing issue lies with the Business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng. He refused the Guardian comment when approached about the issue.
Featured image courtesy of James Van den wouwer via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
ShannonMcGuigan
Shannon McGuigan is one of our Editor in Chiefs at Empoword. She is a trainee journalist studying the News Journalism MA course at Cardiff University and is also freelancing in her spare time! She enjoys crying about shorthand and going on long walks with her rescue dog.