Boris Johnson did not pressure House of Lords chiefs to approve Russian media mogul Evgeny Lebedev for a peerage, the chair of the appointments committee has insisted.
And Lord Bew, who chairs the House of Lords Appointments Committee (HOLAC), said while security services provided information on Lord Lebedev, they did not "warn" them off appointing him to the upper chamber.
The Crossbench peer told a Commons committee the appointment of Lord Lebedev, the son of a former KGB agent and a friend of Boris Johnson, was "a special case...there's no doubt it was a unique case."
