The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has urged the Conservative peer and former minister Greg Barker to quit his lucrative role on the board of the Russian aluminium firm EN+, whose owners include the oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Lord Barker, an energy minister in David Cameron’s government, earned $4m last year as executive chair of the firm, and devised a plan to help the company respond to US government sanctions levelled against the company and Deripaska in 2018. In 2018, the US government sanctioned Deripaska over his alleged links to the Russian government. It also designated EN+ because of its ownership by Deripaska, who has previously said the US allegations were based on “false rumour and innuendo”. Asked whether Barker should quit the Lords or the company, Wallace told the Mail on Sunday: “He should quit all of them.” He added: “I think Lord Barker should explain why he works with people like Deripaska.” Wallace’s aide later clarified he meant Barker should quit the company. The intervention follows calls last week from Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and chair of the parliamentary committee on standards, for Barker to step down from the role.
The call comes amid rising pressure on western businesses and political leaders to sever ties with companies with links to the Russian government, amid the war in Ukraine. Last week, Esko Aho, the former prime minister of Finland, quit the board of Russian bank Sberbank, and Matteo Renzi, Italy’s ex-prime minister, walked away from his role at Delimobil, one of Russia’s largest car-sharing services. EN+ says it is the largest aluminium producer outside China and it also operates power networks in Siberia. It employs 90,000 people and was built up through acquisitions by Deripaska, 54, of aluminium and power-producing companies. In 2008, Deripaska was named Russia’s richest man in by Forbes magazine. That same year, the then shadow chancellor, George Osborne, met Deripaska at Davos and again on holiday in Corfu with Nat Rothschild and Peter Mandelson, sparking a controversy over discussions about Deripaska or his companies potentially donating to the Conservative party.
Last year, it was reported that Osborne had won business for the investment bank for which he now works from a subsidiary of EN+. Barker joined the board of EN+ in 2017 and the US introduced sanctions against the firm in 2018. But these were dropped after Deripaska gave up his controlling stake under a plan overseen by Barker to bring Deripaska’s shareholding below 50%. The peer, who has taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords, became the company’s executive chair in 2019. In 2019, he was paid $7.8m in salary and bonuses, according to the firm’s accounts. A source for En+ Group said: “En+ is the leading international producer of low carbon aluminium with operations and employees throughout the world. We employ several thousand people in Ukraine and the group’s senior leadership is currently totally focussed on doing all it can to keep our colleagues and their families safe and protect their livelihoods.”