Peerage for media boss Lebedev ‘should be investigated’

BORIS Johnson is facing demands for an investigation into the granting of a peerage to Russian-born media mogul Evgeny Lebedev.

The Prime Minister reportedly pushed ahead with the nomination despite intelligence officials raising concerns that Lord Lebedev posed a national security risk.

Sources told The Sunday Times Mr Johnson was insistent the peerage ‘go through’, and the security services subsequently withdrew their warning.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was ‘very concerned’ by the reports and called for the case to be referred to Parliament’s intelligence and security committee.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: ‘It goes to the heart of national security and 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.

‘I think, in the circumstances, what the appropriate thing is for the intelligence and security committee – which is a cross-party committee in Parliament that can have access to confidential material – [to] look into this story.’

But Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said Lord Lebedev, pictured, who owns the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers, went through a ‘very strict and stringent’ process before being granted his peerage. A Government spokesman said: ‘All individuals nominated for a peerage are done so in recognition of their contribution to society and all peerages are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.’

Last week Lord Lebedev published a front-page plea to President Putin on the Evening Standard, imploring him: ‘Save the world from annihilation.’

His message was accompanied by a graphic photo of a medic battling to save a six-year-old girl injured by shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Tragically, the child did not survive.

Lord Lebedev warned that Europe stood on the brink of another world war and ‘possible nuclear disaster’ loomed. In an appeal to Putin, he wrote: ‘As a Russian citizen, I plead with you to stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

‘As a British citizen, I ask you to save Europe from war. As a Russian patriot, I plead that you prevent any more young Russian soldiers from dying needlessly. As a citizen of the world, I ask you to save the world from annihilation.’