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LONDON — A high-profile Conservative Party donor launched a stinging attack on Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt in an interview with POLITICO, saying her opposition to his £1.2 billion energy project is due to “baseless emotions.”
Ukrainian-British businessman Alexander Temerko — who donated more than £1 million to the Tories and was formerly a junior minister in the Russian government — said Mordaunt will be “responsible for high prices of electricity in this country” if his U.K.-France electricity inter connector is blocked by the government in the coming weeks.
Mordaunt, a MP for Portsmouth North and leader of the House of Commons under Rishi Sunak, has previously called on MPs and the Conservative Party headquarters to stop taking money from the Ukrainian tycoon, after he threatened to sue the senior Tory before backing down.
Mordaunt shot back at Temerko, calling him “desperate” and his project a “threat to national security.”
Mordaunt has claimed the project will lead to an over-reliance on French exports and would threaten Britain’s energy security.
The proposal also has attracted strong opposition from local groups, who say it will require years of digging and will destroy parts of the city’s environment. Proponents argue it will boost the U.K.’s energy stocks and lower prices.
Energy Secretary Grant Shapps will soon make a final decision on whether Temerko’s firm Aquind will be allowed to build the proposed Portsmouth-Normandy electricity interconnector, after the government originally blocked the major project last year.
Temerko, who has attracted media attention for paying for a bust of ex-PM David Cameron in London’s Carlton Club, where the modern Conservative Party was founded, and for his friendship with Boris Johnson, said Mordaunt tries to “politicize any problem.”
“If Penny Mordaunt wants to be responsible for high price of electricity in this country — people in Portsmouth say ‘thank you very much’,” he said.
“It’s only emotions … it’s baseless emotions and political inspiration.”
Temerko followed up his interview with a later statement describing Mordaunt as his “friend and colleague” and stressing that he respects her.
Mordaunt told POLITICO: “I have been the secretary of state for defense, armed forces minister, the U.K.’s defensive cyber security lead, head of our civil contingencies, a member of the National Security Council, and a member of the Commons defense select committee.
“I understand very well what is in our national interest — and it is not Aquind or Alexander Temerko.”
Decision incoming
The High Court recently overturned a decision by ex-Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to reject Temerko’s project, which Aquind said can provide 5 percent of Great Britain’s electricity, and forced ministers to re-evaluate the application.
Kwarteng said in January 2022 that “appropriate alternatives” should be considered instead, but the court ruled that the minister had “erred in law” and that the government’s reasons for rejecting the electricity project were not substantial enough.
Temerko warned Shapps will “undermine” the U.K.’s ambitions to lower energy prices and create a more positive investment climate if he rejects the proposal, while also calling on the minister to make his decision on “planning grounds” and not political calculations.
Aquind said it has chosen to spend more money to avoid extensive environmental damage and that the proposal “has the least environmental impact of all the alternatives considered.”
Labour Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said it was “farcical” to suggest there will not be a large impact on the port city if the plan goes ahead.
“The project timescale of five-seven years would cause chaos to local businesses and traffic, not to mention the devastating impact the plan would have on Portsmouth’s open spaces, local environment and wildlife,” he said.
