Evgeny Lebedev: Ministers withhold security advice over appointment

The government is withholding security advice on Evgeny Lebedev's peerage on "national security" grounds.

MPs voted in March to force the publication of secret documents, amid claims the security services had raised concerns about the Russian-born mogul.

But the Cabinet Office has released only limited information to comply with the demand.

Labour accused the government of a "cover-up" and called on them to "come clean".

Lord Lebedev has denied posing a "security risk" to the UK, and said after MPs backed Labour's demand for full disclosure that he had "nothing to hide".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denied intervening over Lord Lebedev's peerage, after reports security services changed their advice after he got involved.

Russian-born Lord Lebedev, the son of a former KGB agent, owns the Independent and London Evening Standard newspaper.

He became a non-party, crossbench peer in July 2020, after being nominated by the prime minister.

Labour's motion called on the government to publish documents about Lord Lebedev's appointment it had received from, or given to, the House of Lords Appointment Committee (HOLOC), which vets peerage nominations.

The government responded on Thursday, but only released the form Lord Lebedev was required to fill in by HOLOC, a document announcing his appointment, a list of other peerages awarded at the time, and a letter congratulating him on the news.

In a statement, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis said what it had published "reflects the need to protect national security".

He added that the government had sent a separate response to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, which scrutinises the UK's security services, after it had made a disclosure request of its own.

Mr Ellis added that Lord Lebedev was a "man of good standing" and "no complaint has been made about his personal conduct".

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner accused ministers of not complying with Parliament's demands. She said the Labour Party would "take steps to rectify this contempt of Parliament".

She added: "This looks like a cover-up and smells like a cover-up because it is a cover-up.

"If the prime minister is claiming he wasn't 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."