Yvette Cooper has used an urgent question to the Commons to ask if Alexander Lebedev tried to arrange a private phone call between Boris Johnson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a weekend party in April 2018.
A day after Johnson admitted for the first time that he had met Lebedev, a former KGB agent, the shadow secretary of the Interior told the Commons that there were more questions raised by the party trip to an Italian palace. property of Lebedev’s son.
“There are also rumors that Alexander Lebedev was trying to arrange a phone call since the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, is that true? Did that phone call happen?” Cooper asked from the mailbox.
In response, Vicky Ford, a junior foreign minister, said, “I take national security issues seriously,” but did not address the issue substantially. He said ministers had introduced “world-leading sanctions packages” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last month, the Tortoise website reported that Lebedev had tried to establish an uncontrolled line between Johnson, then Secretary of State, and Lavrov to discuss Salisbury poisonings that had happened nearly two months earlier. But the call was never made because Johnson fell asleep.
On Wednesday, Johnson confirmed to lawmakers that he had traveled to Perugia for a weekend party without his security details, where he acknowledged that he had “met” with Lebedev, a former Soviet KGB colonel. Johnson said he reported the meeting to officials on his return.
Boris Johnson pressured to meet with former KGB agent while Secretary of State – video
Cooper asked Ford a series of questions about the meeting with Lebedev, also a former owner of the Independent and Evening Standard. “Did the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Security Service know about this meeting in advance? Was a detailed record made after the meeting event? Because there are rumors that the Foreign Minister was too drunk to remember it well. Is that true? ”She asked.
The Labor MP said the opposition had been asking questions about the meeting for months and accused ministers of hiding information. “It’s bad enough to cover up the holidays and break the law, but covering up national security is a total disgrace,” Cooper told lawmakers.
In an initial statement, Ford said that while Johnson had confirmed the fact of the meeting Wednesday, he had “no information about the content of the discussions that may or may not have taken place with Lebedev.”
Labor minister Chris Bryant then asked the minister why no record of the meeting with Lebedev had appeared in the Foreign Ministry’s transparency records, but only a reference to a “night out” with his son Evgeny Lebedev on April 28 and 29, 2018..
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Bryant said this suggests Johnson, in fact, had not made any statement of the meeting with Alexander Lebedev, despite what he told lawmakers Wednesday, because he would have appeared on the record.
In response, Ford was forced to change its response. At first, he said, “I understand that the Prime Minister confirmed that he had met with Mr Lebedev without officials present and that he subsequently informed officials of these meetings.”
But moments later, the junior minister was less confident. “I just got a note that apparently the Prime Minister says he thinks he mentioned this meeting to officials,” he sparked mocking calls from Labor banks. “I’m reporting on what I’ve been told,” he said.