An Oxford MP has called for an “immediate investigation” over whether or not the Conservative party accepted an “illegal” donation linked to a foreign national.

Anneliese Dodds, Labour Party chairwoman and Oxford East MP, has written to her Tory counterpart Oliver Dowden to raise questions over the £450,000 2018 donation from former Conservative Party treasurer Sir Ehud Sheleg.

The New York Times (NYT) said it had reviewed documents linked to the donation and said it originated in a Russian account of Sir Ehud’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov.

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Ms Dodds, raising the point in the House of Commons, said: “There are genuine questions to answer about whether a donation from Sir Ehud to the Conservative Party complied with UK law, given that it appeared to have originated from Sir Ehud’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, a former senior pro-Kremlin politician in Ukraine and apparent owner of significant assets in Crimea.”

The NYT said Barclays bank, in an alert sent to the National Crime Agency in 2021, identified with “considerable certainty” Mr Kopytov to have been the “true source of the donation”.

Sir Ehud’s lawyer said this is not the case, according to the NYT.

Donations to political parties from individuals not on the UK electoral register are not allowed.

Ms Dodds said: “If the Conservatives have accepted an illegal donation the public deserve to know. The Conservative Party chair must act swiftly to set the record straight.”

Following a list of sent questions to Mr Dowden, she asked if an "immediate investigation" into the case raised would be launched.

Mr Kopytov said in a statement provided by Sir Ehud’s lawyer to NYT that he was a Ukrainian citizen and had not donated to any British political party – and that any donations made by his son-in-law “have nothing to do with me”.

Sir Ehud’s lawyers said he has not been contacted by law enforcement in relation to the donation, according to the report.

A spokesman for Sir Ehud Sheleg said in a statement: “The NYT’s allegations are a fabrication and Ms Dodds has unfortunately been sucked in by the paper’s outrageous distortion.

“The facts are that Mr Kopytov, Sir Ehud’s father-in-law, is a Ukrainian victim and is no Putin ‘ally’.

“He is currently a refugee in the Czech Republic, having lost his job as a senior civil servant when the Russians annexed Crimea in 2014 and more recently he has had his Crimean assets put on the Russian ‘nationalising’ list.

“Mr Kopytov has not made a donation to the Conservative Party, whether through Sir Ehud or by any other means. It’s completely untrue.

“The whole agenda-driven story is deeply offensive to Sir Ehud and his family, particularly given the unjustified war in Ukraine.”

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This story was written by Shosha Adie. 

She joined the team in 2022 as a digital reporter.   

To get in touch with her email: Shosha.Adie@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter: @ShoshaAdie

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