A government minister expressed strong support for a controversial £1.2 billion energy cable project after he was lobbied by its Conservative donor co-owner, The Times has learnt.
Kwasi Kwarteng, now the business and energy secretary, was a minister in the same department at the time that he was approached last year.
Alexander Temerko’s company, Aquind, is seeking permission to build the cable under the Channel to connect the UK and French power grids. Letters disclosed under freedom of information laws show that he lobbied ministers for support.
The Aquind interconnector was granted nationally significant infrastructure status by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in 2018, which means that the business secretary will decide whether to grant the project approval. A decision is expected later this year.
Temerko asked Kwarteng to write to French officials in support of the project last April. Kwarteng replied: “In your letter you requested that I write to Mme Mourlon [a French energy official] to reiterate the UK government’s support for Aquind and other planned interconnections between GB and France. I will be happy to write to Mme Mourlon to reiterate our support for interconnection at the appropriate time.”
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In another note from March last year, Kwarteng responded to a letter from Temerko over concerns about Ofgem’s regulatory approach to the project.
“Thank you for your letter of February 10, regarding Ofgem’s approach to regulation of the Aquind interconnector project. Thank you for writing to me outlining your concerns,” Kwarteng wrote.
Later in the letter, he told Temerko: “I do not think there is much doubt that the UK government and Ofgem support the project” and “please be assured that our support for the project remains. I will ensure that my officials continue to take suitable opportunities to communicate the benefits of the project in discussions with the French government.”
In another piece of correspondence, sent on October 3, 2019, Kwarteng signed off with “PS, excellent to see you at [the Conservative] conference this year!”.
Despite being asked for both sides of the correspondence the department only disclosed the ministerial responses. The Times has appealed for copies of Temerko’s letters.
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Last year Alok Sharma, when he was the business secretary, recused himself from Aquind’s project decisions after sharing a table with Temerko at a Tory fundraiser.
The department said the March letter was about Aquind applying to be an EU Project of Common Interest, which requires support from the relevant member state and did not relate to planning matters.
In his last letter in September 2020, Kwarteng wrote that he could not comment on specific concerns raised by Temerko as it could be seen to prejudice any applications or proposals made through the planning process. This came as Aquind formally declared who its owners were after a Times investigation revealed that it was secretly controlled by a Russian-born oil tycoon, Viktor Fedotov, last year. Company filings have now been updated to show that Aquind’s chairman, Temerko, is the co-owner with Fedotov.
The company remains a major Conservative donor. The party has been given £1.6 million by Temerko or companies he has directed since 2012, and £55,000 by Aquind since last August.
A business department spokesman said: “All applications for development consent are dealt with in line with government propriety guidance and are assessed on a case-by-case basis.”
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Schillings, the law firm acting for Aquind and Temerko, said: “Aquind is strictly compliant with all relevant laws and legislations of the UK, France and the European Union. Aquind is the largest interconnector in the pipeline, and as any other major infrastructure developer is required to maintain an ongoing engagement with the relevant government departments at all levels, including at a ministerial level.”
They added that the project was “an essential part of the national infrastructure necessary to meet net-zero targets”, and that the company “has gone to considerable lengths to minimise impacts of the project”.
