Criticism of Lord Lebedev’s peerage “suits Putin’s agenda”, Boris Johnson has claimed, as he denied overriding security concerns from Britain’s spy agencies about the appointment.
On Monday, the Prime Minister responded to allegations that he had personally intervened to support the peerage of Lord Lebedev, the Russian-born son of a KGB officer, after concerns from MI5, MI6 and the House of Lords Appointments Committee (HoLAC).
He said that while the allegations would “obviously be extraordinary” if they were true, it was “not the case” that he had interfered in the process.
The Sunday Times reported that the spy agencies had raised security concerns with HoLAC, who had communicated them to Downing Street, but that their opposition was dropped after Mr Johnson described the concerns as “anti-Russianism”.
On Monday, the Prime Minister said it “suits Putin’s agenda to try and characterise this as a struggle between the west and Russia” and to sow division between the Government and Russians living in the UK.
In apparent support of Lord Lebedev, who is a long-standing friend and political ally of Mr Johnson, he added: “We must not play Putin’s game and somehow turn this into a witch hunt against every Russian in the UK.”
James Cleverly, a Foreign Office minister, denied allegations on Monday that Lord Lebedev had an undue influence on the Government by pointing out the peer’s poor record of attendance in the House of Lords.
“It flies in the face of this accusation that he is distorting British politics if he is not voting on British laws – that is something which a lot of members of the House of Lords don’t do,” he said.
Labour has called for Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, which has statutory oversight of the spy agencies, to investigate.
But both the peer and No10 deny the suggestion that his appointment was the subject of political interference. Downing Street insisted on Monday that the process was conducted “properly and correctly”.
‘Back channel’ to Putin
Separately, it was also claimed that Lord Lebedev offered to act as a “back channel” between Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin in the wake of the Skripal poisonings.
According to Tortoise Media’s Slow Newscast, the peer said he would act as a go-between for Britain and Russia, and made the offer during Mr Johnson’s visit to his home in Umbria in 2018, after which he was pictured at an Italian airport “looking hungover”.
Downing Street did not respond to a request for comment on the claims but a spokesman for Lord Lebedev said they were “total nonsense”.
The Lebedev allegations have also prompted calls for reform of the appointments process for the House of Lords, while politicians with remaining connections to the Russian business and political worlds are under increasing pressure to cut their ties.
Lord Burns, the chair of the parliamentary committee on reducing the size of the House of Lords, said Mr Johnson should stop appointing crossbench peers like Lord Lebedev, and allow the independent HoLAC to recommend members to him.
“The Prime Minister has been putting people into the House of Lords and defining them as being non-aligned,” he told The Telegraph.
Lord Barker, a Conservative peer, has stepped down as chairman of a company that owns EN+, an aluminium company founded by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
