Thursday 19 May 2022 04:55 PM Labour claims £15m has been handed to Putin ally to put green buses on UK ... trends now

1

View
comments

Labour accused ministers of handing millions in taxpayers cash to a firm run by one of Vladimir Putin's 'closest allies' today, despite targeting his inner circle with sanctions linked to the Ukraine war.  

Shadow transport minister Sam Tarry said the Government has awarded £15 million to electric bus manufacturer Arrival, founded and run by Denis Sverdlov.

The businessman was briefly a Russian deputy minister of communications and mass media before moving to the UK and setting up the Bicester-based firm in 2015.

Speaking during a session of transport questions in the House of Commons, Mr Tarry said the company had been given cash from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme (Zebra).

It is designed to help local transport authorities outside of London introduce zero-emission buses.

Arrival, which is listed on the US Nasdaq stock exchange, said today that its CEO had 'never had a personal relationship' with Putin and had no further involvement with the Russian government after leaving his deputy minister role in 2013.