A girls’ night out with the PM and her posse for £135,000? Bargain
Clearly, Lubov Chernukhin, the Russian oligarch’s wife, doesn’t worry too much about the company she keeps
As if Conservative donors were not resentful enough – where they haven’t already complied with Boris Johnson’s injunction to fuck off – it is now clear, thanks to the Treasury secretary, Liz Truss, by what a prodigious margin some of them must have overpaid for a basic minister experience. It’s ages since a party chairman quoted £250,000 as the starting price to get near David Cameron.
A photograph posted on Truss’s Instagram account last week showed six female cabinet members and the prime minister assembled beside a wealthy woman of Russian origin. Lubov Chernukhin had gifted herself their presence (in an auction at the latest Black and White Tory fundraiser) for £135,000: ie, less than £20,000 apiece for hours of proximity to Karen Bradley (Northern Ireland secretary), Baroness Evans (leader of the Lords), Caroline Nokes (immigration), Amber Rudd, Andrea Leadsom, Truss and – smiling alongside Mrs C – Theresa May.