A day after Johnson admitted for the first time that he had met Lebedev, a former KGB agent, the shadow home secretary told the Commons there were further questions from the party trip to an Italian palace owned by Lebedev’s son. “There are also rumors that Alexander Lebedev was trying to arrange a phone call from the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, is that true? Did that phone call go through?’ Cooper asked from the shipping box. In response, Vicky Ford, a junior secretary of state, said: “I take matters of national security very seriously,” but failed to substantively answer the question. 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 create a deadlock between Johnson, then foreign secretary, and Lavrov to discuss the poisonings in Salisbury that had happened nearly two months earlier. But the phone call never came because Johnson overslept. Johnson confirmed to MPs on Wednesday that he had traveled to Perugia for a weekend party without his security detail, where he admitted he had “definitely met” Lebedev, a former Soviet KGB colonel. Johnson said he reported the meeting to officials upon his return. Boris Johnson pushed to meet ex-KGB agent while foreign secretary – video Cooper asked Ford a series of questions about the meeting with Lebedev, also a former owner of the Independent and the Evening Standard. “Did the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Security Service know in advance about this meeting? Was a detailed recording made after the event of the meeting? Because there are rumors that the Secretary of State was too drunk to remember correctly. Is that true?” he asked. The Labor MP said the opposition had been asking questions about the meeting for months and accused ministers of withholding information. “It’s bad enough to cover up the parties and break the law, but covering up national security is an absolute disgrace,” Cooper told MPs. In an initial statement, Ford said that while Johnson had confirmed the meeting on Wednesday, it had “no information about the content of any discussions that may or may not have taken place with Mr Lebedev”. The minister was then pressed by Labor backbencher Chris Bryant over why no record of the meeting with Lebedev appeared in Foreign Office transparency files, only a reference to an “overnight stay” with his son Yevgeny Lebedev on April 28-29 2018. . Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Bryant said that suggested Johnson had not actually made any statement about the meeting with Alexander Lebedev, despite what he told deputies Wednesday, because it would have appeared on the record. In response, Ford was forced to change its response. He initially said: “I understand that the prime minister has confirmed that he had met Mr Lebedev without officials present and that he then reported those meetings to officials.” Moments later, however, the junior minister was less sure. “I’ve just had a note that apparently the prime minister says he thinks he’s reported this meeting to officials,” prompting calls of derision from the Labor benches. “I’m reporting what I was told,” he said.
