PM And Mayor Sell Tennis Game For £160,000

The wife of a former Russian government minister has bought the chance to play tennis with the Prime Minister David Cameron and London mayor Boris Johnson in an auction.

Banker Lubov Chernukhin, who is a Tory party member and supporter, paid £160,000 for the prize at an event to raise money for the Conservative Party.

Her husband is Vladimir Chernukhin, who was deputy finance minister between 2000 and 2002, when Vladimir Putin was president.

Mr Chernukhin is believed to have donated £5,500 to the Tories since 2012.

The tennis match was auctioned at the Conservatives' summer fundraising ball on Wednesday.

The event was held at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham, west London, but a guest list was not published.

Other lots said to have been sold included a bottle of champagne signed by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which reportedly sold for £40,000 and a pheasant shoot on the Oxfordshire estate of Syrian-born billionaire Wafic Said, which went for £80,000.

Mrs Chernukhin's lawyers Carter-Ruck confirmed she was the successful bidder.

The Conservative Party said it would not confirm the amount paid for the tennis match. Boris Johnson's spokesman said it was a "party matter".

Fiona Twycross, the Labour Group's economy spokeswoman at the London Assembly, attacked Mr Johnson for setting aside the time to play tennis with a donor, when he had been unable to find the time to visit a food bank.

She said: "He will happily socialise with associates of authoritarian regimes that give his party £160,000, but is unwilling to come and see what life is like for struggling Londoners.

"Last year Boris spent more time in Doha than Dagenham, Cannes than Canning Town and the Gulf than Greenwich. This latest incident is proof of just how out of touch the Mayor truly is."