Boris Johnson has denied that he intervened to secure a peerage for Evgeny Lebedev after intelligence services warned it would be a security risk, arguing that such suggestions could be motivated by anti-Russian prejudice.
Answering questions during a brief TV clip on Monday, the prime minister did not, however, deny meeting the Russian-British newspaper owner at the start of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, shortly before the peerage was formalised.
