Name the eight oligarchs given ‘golden visas’, demands Labour
The government is facing fresh calls to reveal the identities of eight sanctioned Russian oligarchs who were allowed to buy “golden visas” to live in the UK.
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow minister for immigration, is demanding that the home secretary, Priti Patel, name the eight Russians on the sanctions list and publish a long-withheld report on the now scrapped visa purchase programme.
The government closed the “tier 1 investor visa” scheme in February as diplomatic relations with Russia came under severe strain. A week later, Russia invaded Ukraine, prompting the US, EU and UK to impose sanctions on many of Russia’s richest people to try to put pressure on Putin’s regime.
Those on the sanctions list include Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC; Alisher Usmanov, the steel and mining magnate described by the EU as one of Putin’s “favourite oligarchs”; and Andrey Guryev Jr, whose family reportedly owns Witanhurst, a mansion in Highgate, north London, that is London’s second largest home after Buckingham Palace.
Critics had long warned that the golden visa scheme, under which the super-rich could essentially buy the right to reside in the UK, was open to abuse. The scheme allowed people with at least £2m in investment funds and a UK bank account to apply for residency rights, along with their family.
The Home Office last month committed to publishing a 2018 report on golden visas that covered the period from their introduction in 2008 by the Labour government up to 2015. The government has not said when it will do so.
During that period few if any checks were carried out on applicants, in what the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption described as a “red carpet for dirty money”. About 3,000 millionaires bought
Read more on theguardian.com
