United Kingdom

UK spy agencies reframed warning about security risk of appointing media owner after Boris Johnson intervened

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said parliament’s intelligence and security committee should investigate the circumstances surrounding Boris Johnson’s elevation of Evgeny Lebedev to the House of Lords.

The demand came after a fresh report that the intelligence agencies had reframed an assessment that Lebedev’s appointment would pose a security risk following an intervention from the prime minister in early 2020.

Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday Morning, Starmer said he was very concerned: “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.”

The Labour leader said the case should be referred to the all-party committee, which acts as a watchdog on intelligence matters, “so they can look into this story, this allegation, which is very serious, because of course, it’s a matter of national security”.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/06/evgeny-lebedev-peerage-investigation-keir-starmer-boris-johnson