A photo of Evgeny Lebedev with his pet dog Boris has resurfaced as the prime minister faces calls to explain his role in the Russian’s peerage.
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has written to the PM following a report in The Sunday Times which alleged that security services withdrew an assessment that granting a peerage to the Moscow-born son of an ex-KGB agent posed a national security risk after Mr Johnson personally intervened.
The newspaper reported that intelligence provided by MI5 and MI6 to the House of Lords Appointments Commission via Cabinet Office security officials initially said there could be a national security threat, but this was later withdrawn.
Ms Cooper has now called on the PM to “make available to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) the advice and information you were given about the ennobling of Evgeny Lebedev and full information about the role you played in the process”.
The cross-party ISC has the security clearance to view highly-classified intelligence on matters of national security, and Ms Cooper said in her letter: “As you will agree, it is the first duty of the Prime Minister to protect national security.
“Given that Mr Lebedev is still a member of the House of Lords, it is in all our interests to ensure that these allegations can be thoroughly investigated.”
A Government spokesperson said: “All individuals nominated for a peerage are done so in recognition of their contribution to society and all peerages are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.”
Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “very concerned” about the reports surrounding Lord Lebedev and insisted the case should be referred to the ISC as it goes to “the heart of national security”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, he said: “I’m very concerned about that story, because it goes to the heart of national security and there’s at least the suggestion that the Government and the Prime Minister were warned that there was a national security risk in this particular appointment.”
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
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