Lord Barker must quit from En+ and resign from the House of Lords: Ben Wallace, UK Defence Secretary

The Defence Secretary of the United Kingdom, Ben Wallace has stated his words very strongly following the ongoing Russia-Ukraine military conflict that the former Energy Minister Lord Barker must step down from his Chairmanship at the Russian aluminium and energy giant En+ Group and also must resign from the House of Lords.

Lord Barker holds the post of executive chairman at En+ after the group’s major shareholder Russian industrial tycoon Oleg Deripaska stepped down in regards to sanctions-related matters.  However, Lord Barker preserves his seat in the House of Lords while working full-time for the company.

On 27^th February 2022, the Defence Secretary further added to his statement, “Lord Barker must sever ties with the Russian company and quit the House of Lords for good.”

During the previous week, politicians across Europe resigned from their roles on Russian companies following the conflict between Russia-Ukraine. The former Prime Minister of Finland, Esko Aho stepped down from the board of Russian bank Sberbank, and also Italy's ex-Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi resigned from his role at Delimobil, the largest Russian car-sharing service.

Lord Barker used to be a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Conservative Party for Bexhill & Battle until 2015 and served the nation as Energy Minister in David Cameron's government. However, the Lord joined En+ in 2017, the moment ahead of the company's listing in London.

The United States implemented sanctions against En+ in 2018, but these were withdrawn following Oleg Deripaska relinquishing his controlling stake.

Lord Barker was appointed as Independent Chairman of the Board of Directors of En+ Group in October 2017, while in February 2019, he was appointed as Executive Chairman of the Board.