The questions over Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage

The prime minister is facing renewed questions over claims that he helped secure a peerage for the Russian-born newspaper baron Evgeny Lebedev.

The Evening Standard and Independent owner, whose father was a senior KGB officer turned oligarch, was made a lord in 2020, despite concerns raised by the security services.

The Sunday Times claimed that Boris Johnson visited Lebedev at his home on 19 March 2020, two days after the House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac) rejected his nomination based on intelligence provided by MI5 and MI6.

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The newspaper also said the security services withdrew their warning – that putting Lebedev in the Lords posed a national security risk – after Johnson intervened. While Holac vets peerages, the prime minister has the final say. Johnson “pushed ahead with the nomination of his friend”, claimed the paper, and in November 2020 Lebedev became Baron Lebedev of Hampton and Siberia.

The questions

“A number of questions are begged,” said Robert Peston in The Spectator, including the “precise concerns” of MI5 and MI6 and what was said at the 19 March meeting.

But another question, said Peston, is “why was this even an issue at a time when protecting the nation from coronavirus was the obvious priority?” This was March 2020, when “Covid-19 was on these shores in scale” and Downing Street was facing the “worst crisis since the second world war”.

And why was Johnson, as one of Peston’s sources put it, “obsessed with the peerage being granted”?

The journalist suggested that the PM was closer to Ledebev, a dual British national whose Evening Standard backed Johnson when he was London mayor, “than to any other proprietor”. “Johnson would go every autumn to stay in Lebedev’s lavish castle in Umbria for a social weekend – sometimes being flown in Lebedev’s private jet,” added Peston.

Labour has demanded an investigation, with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper calling on Johnson to reveal to the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee the “full information” about the role he played in the process.

The defence

According to Business Insider, Lebedev “hasn’t spoken or voted” in the House of Lords since he gave his maiden speech last May. He has only attended the chamber three times, added the news site.

Europe Minister James Cleverly used this information to defend Lebedev’s peerage on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, saying: “I think it rather flies in the face of the accusation that he somehow distorts the face of British politics if he’s not voting on British laws.”

“Seemingly undermining the Lords altogether”, Cleverly added that there are “lots” of peers “who are not active members of the House of Lords”, said HuffPost. The minister also warned that “we need to be a little bit careful suggesting or implying that everyone of Russian origin is somehow inappropriate to step into public life”.

Johnson has called the Sunday Times claims “simply incorrect” and said it would “obviously be extraordinary” if he had intervened. He also warned against a “witch hunt” of Russians in the UK, saying that would play into Moscow’s hands.

Meanwhile, Lebedev, who last week appealed to Putin to stop the Ukraine invasion, told The Sunday Times that “all” of the allegations in its report were incorrect and the questions did not “merit an answer”.