BORIS Johnson has admitted playing tennis with the wife of one of Vladimir Putin’s former ministers in return for a £160,000 donation to the Conservative Party.

The Foreign Secretary confirmed taking part in the game with Lubov Chernukhin, whose husband Vladimir served as deputy finance minister under President Putin until 2004.

She made the donation in 2014 to play a game with Mr Johnson and David Cameron.

At the time Mr Cameron insisted Ms Chernukhin was not a "Putin crony" and had been resident in the UK for many years.

Last month Ms Chernukhin paid a further £30,000 at a lavish Tory fundraiser for a private tour of Churchill’s War Rooms and dinner with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.

In the wake of the suspected Russian nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Labour and the SNP have highlighted the scale of Russian donations to the Conservatives.

Russian oligarchs and their associates have given an estimated £826,000 to the Tories since Theresa May became Prime Minister in 2016.

Last week Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko who was assassinated in London in 2006, warned the Tories about taking Russian cash.

“You need to be very accurate where this money came from before you accept this money,” she said. “[The] reputation of the Conservative party in the UK and all around the world needs to be clear.”

Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether the tennis match had taken place, Mr Johnson said: "It did.”

But he defended his party’s decision to take money from the Russian elite in the UK, and said it would be wrong to create a “miasma of suspicion” around all Russian émigrés.

He said: “If there is evidence of gross corruption in the way that gentleman you mentioned [Vladimir Chernukhin] obtained his wealth then it is possible for our law enforcement agencies to deprive him of his wealth with an Unexplained Wealth Order.

“That is a matter for the authorities. It is not a matter for me.”

Asked about Ms Chernukhin’s £30,000 donation in relation to the Defence Secretary, Mr Johnson said: “Unless and until evidence is produced against individual Russians, I do not think the entire nation should be calumnified.

“There are many Russians who have come to this country, and made their lives here and contributed magnificently to our culture and our society, and they feel threatened.

“It is very important that we do not allow a miasma of suspicion about all Russians in London and, indeed, all rich Russian in London to be created.”

Mr Johnson then attacked Labour for focusing on party funding after the Salisbury attack.

He said: “It is quite extraordinary at a time when you have two people lying gravely ill in hospital in Salisbury, when a police officer is still not out of hospital for the fire somehow to be turned on Conservative party funding, to the best of my knowledge all possible checks have been made and they will continue to be made.”

Nicola Sturgeon raised the issue of Russians donating to the Tories at last week’s First Minister’s Questions, needling Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson about the issue.

She said: “The difference between me and Ruth Davidson is that I have made known my view on Russia Today [the propaganda channel broadcasting the Alex Salmond Show].

“Whereas I am not aware that she has made her views known on matters such as Russian donations to political parties. Perhaps she will take the opportunity to do so.

“All these issues require to be looked at if one of them is going to be raised.”