Boris Johnson is facing questions about why no officials were present to take notes at the 2018 meeting with the Russian oligarch. The PM - who was foreign secretary at the time - says it was a private social event that had not been pre-arranged.
The Soviet KGB was the main Cold War rival of Western security services and President Vladimir Putin - along with some of his closest comrades - worked for the agency. Mr Lebedev’s son Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the London Evening Standard and a shareholder in The Independent, was given a seat in the House of Lords by Mr Johnson in 2020.
The appointment has been shrouded in controversy after The Sunday Times newspaper alleged security services withdrew an assessment that the peerage posed a national security risk after the prime minister intervened. Mr Johnson has previously denied this and Lord Lebedev has rejected the suggestion he posed a “security risk” to the UK. In an article, he acknowledged his father “was a foreign intelligence agent of the KGB”, but insisted he was not “some agent of Russia” and condemned its invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson has been under mounting pressure to explain the nature of his meeting with Mr Lebedev’s father Alexander in April 2018, at the oligarch’s Italian home. Mr Johnson has been criticised for not having security officers with him on the trip, which took place after a Nato summit at which Russia was on the agenda.
Weeks earlier a former Russian military officer and his daughter were poisoned in the English city of Salisbury, in an attack the UK blamed on the Kremlin.
Mr Johnson was asked to provide further written answers on a number of questions after the appearance in front of senior MPs.
In a letter, Mr Johnson said he declared the overnight stay at Mr Lebedev’s house “in the interests of transparency” and insisted the trip was “in line with established security protocols”.
“It would not have been normal practice for civil servants or security staff to have accompanied me to such a private, social occasion,” he wrote. He also noted he took no ministerial papers with him, adding: “As far as I am aware, no government business was discussed.”
Labour said the prime minister’s letter raised “more questions than it answers” because “he apparently still can’t recall whether he discussed government business or not” and it suggested the PM “has something to hide”.
Well, we all know that BJ ignores rules, lies as a matter of habit and breaks his own laws …
You’d kinda hope the PM of our country would remember if he’d discussed affairs of state with an ex KGB agent or not!
So, big liar that he is, even he isn’t saying he definitely didn’t, so almost certainly he did and someone has the evidence to prove it and he’s too scared to tell a blatant lie
Worse than Lebedev being ex’KGB (which means he will have worked for Putin) is that as a favoured oligarch Lebedev will be siphoning some of this wealth to Putin. This is how Putin has amassed hundreds of millions in wealth. Ever since Putin created the Yukos collapse he has been leaning on oligrachs to get a cut. Russia is simply a crime syndicate with Putin at the top.
Johnson will have known this but happily met with Lebedev on many occasions. Many of these occasions will have been simply social (Lebedev was famous for throwing extravagant parties in London and in his Itlaian villa). But not all were entirely social as Lebedev bought the Evening Standard, had his son run the newspaper and got Johnson to give his son a life peerage. Yes, social meeting to make his son a lord of the UK. Nothing dodgy to see here.
Johnson lost most of his previous jobs due to lying.
Why the government thought making him prime minister would improve his Capacity to tell the truth is beyond me ….in fact it would seem the opposite occurred.
He has brought disgrace upon the tory party
I just find it hard to believe some of the stuff that has gone on - the appointment of Evgeny Lebedev to the House of Lords was blatant cronyism and despite the security services expressing concern, everyone let Johnson get away with it.
The fact that the Govt allowed Russian oligarchs and their families to hold key positions in Britain worries me - owning newspapers, which can shape public thinking is bad enough - placing them in the heart of Westminster, giving them a vote in the Chamber where all our legislation is formed sounds crazy.
I’ve never liked this idea that, if Russians are rich enough, they can buy their way in to British citizenship and if they donate enough money to the Tories and have a pet politician in their pocket, they gain a lot of influence in UK - yet many of them have links to Putin, who can send his hitmen over to UK to poison his enemies and get away with it.
It is not the BBC who is asking the PM to answer these questions.
They are just reporting it - it is being reported on other news outlets too.
It is being conducted by the House of Commons Liaison Committee.
The Liaison Committee is made up of Select Committee Chairs. It considers the overall work of select committees, promotes effective scrutiny of Government and chooses committee reports for debates. It questions the Prime Minister about policy, usually three times a year.
Come on Boot, you don’t believe all that malarkey do you…Someone has been collecting this stuff on boris for years and waiting for the right time to light the fuse and the BBC are the willing to supply the charges…
Why now? Because the partygate story is wearing a bit thin and it looks like Boris might have a resurgence, so they have been saving this for the final nail in Boris’s coffin. Wake up Britain!
But it wasn’t BBC journalists who first uncovered the details about the meeting he is being questioned about.
It was journalists from Open Democracy - and yes, they have been investigating Johnson’s links with Lebedev for a while.
The reason it is being reported by the BBC and lots of other media outlets right now is because the Parliamentary Committee have been questioning Johnson about it.
I agree that media outlets often push their own agenda, or the agenda of the editor or owner (which is why I don’t like our British newspapers being owned by foreigners like Lebedev)
We all understand that newspapers will have biased editorials and opinion pieces but when it comes to reporting Facts, they should be fact-checked.
I think the BBC are more diligent than some other media outlets at fact-checking information.
What I do find weird is when folk don’t like the news a media outlet is reporting and they blame the media outlet for reporting it - even when it’s a factual piece of news that other media outlets are reporting!
What’s that phrase? - Don’t shoot the messenger!
Publication of correspondence from Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP
In response to questions at the last session of the Liaison Committee on July 6, the Prime Minister has written to the Chair of the Committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, with additional information.
The Prime Minister responds to the following questions:
Whether the OneWeb satellite system can be used for aircraft navigation (Q23, Angus Brendan MacNeil)
Whether the PM met with Alexander Lebedev on 28 April 2018 without officials, and whether officials were subsequently informed of the meeting (Q41 et seq, Dame Diana Johnson)
What proportion of visas under the homes for Ukraine scheme have been granted to women (Q53, Caroline Nokes)
What checks are made on the accommodation in which Ukrainian refugees are housed after they have been placed there (Q56, Caroline Nokes)
When the government plans to publish proposals to replace fuel duty that are reportedly delayed awaiting approval within Number 10 (Q95, Huw Merriman)
Whether the PM has been made aware of any other outstanding allegations of sexual impropriety by Ministers (Q158, Chris Bryant)
When the Government plans to publish the report of the investigation by the former Independent Adviser on Minster’s Interests into Rt Hon Mark Spencer MP (Q177, Chris Bryant).
I wonder why some are so keen to shift this dialogue away from Johnson’s dodgy relations with Russian oligarchs and move it onto how they think the BBC has an agenda? Strange as the beeb don’t need an agenda against Johnson - he is a walking catalogue of mistakes, lies and empty promises. You do not need an agenda to find evidence of Johnson’s failings. You just wake up and he provides you with another example. So no BBC agenda. Sorry to disappoint.
According to a 2021 report by the Media Reform Coalition, 90% of the UK-wide print media is owned and controlled by just three companies, Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror), News UK and DMG Media . This figure was up from 83% in 2019.
