Lebedev papers withheld despite promise to publish

MINISTERS have been accused of a “cover up” after withholding the security advice on Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage.

The Cabinet Office did not publish the detailed advice in order to “protect national security”, Michael Ellis, a department minister, said yesterday.

Parliament approved a motion earlier this year which would force the Government to release documents about Boris Johnson’s involvement in the appointment of the Russian-born businessman.

Instead, the Cabinet Office simply released the blank form Lord Lebedev was required to fill in by the House of Lords Appointments Commission and a couple of email exchanges with almost all content redacted apart from a note congratulating him on the news.

Lord Lebedev, owner of the London Evening Standard and a stakeholder in The Independent online newspaper, is the son of a former KGB agent and Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev. In documents revealed yesterday the Government commented that the two publications were “unlikely to have survived without his investment”.

His appointment to the House of Lords in November 2020 has been shrouded in controversy after The Sunday Times claimed he had been identified as a national security risk by officials but was given the all-clear after the Prime Minister intervened.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the party would be taking measures in the Commons to force its publication, calling the Government’s move “contempt of Parliament”.

“This looks like a cover up and smells like a cover up because it is a cover up,” she said.

“If the Prime Minister is claiming he was not involved in forcing through the award of a peerage to an individual of concern to our intelligence services, he should come clean and publish the documents as Parliament instructed.”