Contributions to the UK's ruling Conservative party from Russian-born business executives have surged in 2020, to almost triple the combined total of donations made in the previous two years.

According to Financial News analysis of Electoral Commission data, in 2020 the party received donations totalling £325,022 from Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s former finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin and a long-standing Tory donor.