BORIS Johnson is under pressure to sack the co-chair of the Conservatives for overseeing almost £2 million of Russia-linked donations to the party whilst also offering his services to the Russian ultra-rich.

The Labour party has written to the Prime Minister demanding the removal of Tory co-chair Ben Elliot, during whose tenure the party accepted donations from Lubov Chernukhin, wife of Vladimir Putin’s former finance minister, as well as Aquind, the company co-owned by the billionaire Viktor Fedotov.

Neither individual is currently subject to sanctions, and the Tories have previously argued that all donations to the party were “properly and transparently” declared under British electoral law. Chernukhin, who has British citizenship, has also condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has described Putin’s government as “despotic”.

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Nevertheless, Labour leader Keir Starmer said during a visit to Birmingham Erdington that if Elliot – the nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall – did not step back from his role as Tory co-chair, he should be removed.

Starmer said: “I think there is growing concern about the links between the Conservative Party and Russian money. Ben Elliot is at the heart of that.

“We need to strip Russian money away from our politics, not to allow it to influence our politics. There will always be this danger if the Conservative government doesn’t go really hard on this that people will say it must be because you are reliant on Russian money that you are not going more quickly.

“So, it’s in everybody’s best interests that Ben Elliot steps back from his role – and I think he should actually be sacked from it.”

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In a letter to the prime minister, Labour chair Annaliese Dodds wrote: “You have sat idly by while Mr Elliot has overseen a party fundraising operation that has seen almost £2m pounds in donations from people with links to Putin’s murderous regime flood into Tory coffers since you became Conservative Party leader.”

Elliot is also the co-founder of Quintessentially, a luxury concierge company with an office in Moscow. Despite the webpage detailing the company’s Russian presence being deleted this week, an archived version of the page said: “Quintessentially Russia has nearly 15 years’ experience providing luxury lifestyle management services to Russia’s elite and corporate members.”

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A spokesperson for Quintessentially has said the company “completely condemns President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine” and is monitoring its clients to ensure none are on any sanction list.

Quintessentially was subject to a month-long investigation in 2021 by the UK lobbying regulator over "cash for access" concerns.

Although it was found the business had not engaged in any registerable lobbying activity, Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists head Harry Rich warned Elliot “to be cautious about the possibility of engaging in consultant lobbying activity (perhaps unintentionally) by not making a clear enough distinction between his role as a director of Quintessentially and his other activities connected to government.”