Chris Bryant MP, responding to revelations from Boris Johnson on LBC that David Cameron asked the Foreign Office to conduct checks on Conservative Party donors, said:

“Boris has let the cat out of the bag about the hundreds of thousands of pounds the Tories have taken. David Cameron suggested the Tory Party were doing proper background checks on these Russian donors, but now it’s clear they’ve done nothing of the kind. This is deeply inappropriate.

“There are real questions here about why government resources have been diverted to do the Tory Party’s work for them. The Foreign Office is not meant to be the Tory Party’s private investigator. Why isn’t the Conservative Party doing its own checking? How many civil servants, diplomats and secret service staff have been asked to check up on Cameron’s donors?

“It’s time David Cameron took personal responsibility, showed some leadership and explain to the British public why it’s right for him to keep this money.”

Pressing questions for David Cameron
i. What checks have CCHQ conducted on Russian donors to the Conservative Party?

ii. Which Conservative Party donors have the FCO looked at?

iii. How many FCO staff and at what grade have worked on checking Conservative Party donors and over what time period?

iv. What advice has the FCO passed on to David Cameron, Boris Johnson and CCHQ, and given this was funded by taxpayers’ money will this now be made public?

Transcript – Boris Johnson on LBC

Q: This Chernukin chap is he one of these cronies, have you checked him out, have your staff checked him out - how satisfied are you?

Boris Johnson: We’ve done, obviously we are relying heavily on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because they are leading on this and I’ve had absolutely categorical assurances and I think I’ve met this gentleman’s wife and she seemed very nice but they’ve checked him/her out as far as they possibly can and we think that he doesn’t come anywhere near this category and that is reason really. If you are going to make this thing work you don’t want to cheer-up Putin by accidentally targeting people who are by no means his friends, what’s the good of that?

Q: So he is a goodie rather than a baddie?

Boris Johnson: So I am assured by the FCO and they ought to know.

Boris Johnson, LBC clip, Thursday, 24 July 2014 http://www.lbc.co.uk/lbc-reporters-blog-11044/entry/105/10013