Boris Johnson has suffered a fresh humiliation after Tory rebels joined with Labour to force the publication of security advice relating to Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage.
Labour launched a bid to reveal information about Johnson’s appointment of his friend to the House of Lords, following the revelation that the intelligence services had concerns about the Russian-born businessman and son of a former KGB officer.
The opposition had been expected to fail in its attempt to force the disclosure through a humble address, but Tory rebels made clear they were not prepared to block the publication, forcing the government to allow its MPs to abstain.
The government argued against the release of the documents, with Michael Ellis, the paymaster general, saying it was an attempt to “smear a British citizen of Russian extraction in order to score cheap political points against the prime minister”.
However, it did not order Tory MPs to vote against the motion because of fears the government could lose the vote. The information relating to Lebedev’s peerage will now have to be released by the Cabinet Office no later than 28 April.
Tory backbenchers had threatened to rebel, believing the situation was reminiscent of the Owen Paterson debacle, when they were ordered to back a change in the standards rules that was politically unpopular and doomed to failure.
Faced with a revolt, the Tory whips performed a dramatic U-turn and told MPs they would be allowed to abstain.
A rebel estimated there were 50 people prepared to abstain in the face of whips originally instructing them to vote against. They said that in the aftermath of the Paterson scandal, pressure would be kept on the government on standards issues.
“Next time, I’m not going to tell the whips I won’t be voting with the government – they have to learn to stop making these stupid decisions and being forced into a U-turn. We’re just lucky it was such a quick win this time,” one Tory backbencher said.
In response to Labour’s motion, Lebedev tweeted: “Openness and transparency are pillars of our democratic system, so I welcome the call for security advice about me provided to Holac to be released. I have nothing to hide.”
He also revealed that Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, had texted him congratulating him on his peerage at the time of his appointment to the House of Lords.
The Guardian revealed in October 2020 that Johnson met Lebedev in March that year, shortly before the House of Lords appointments commission (Holac), which scrutinises all nominations, wrote to the prime minister. The commission is understood to have expressed concerns about Lebedev’s proposed peerage and asked Downing Street to reconsider.
Peers on the commission were said to have had confidential briefing from the UK security services, which suggested that the appointment was a potential security risk because of Lebedev’s father, Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB agent who worked undercover at the Soviet embassy in London.
Downing Street is then alleged to have sought further assurances from the security agencies. They provided extra context, which was enough to lead to a different outcome, and the peers signed off the appointment.
Johnson has denied he intervened to secure a peerage, and Lebedev said in the aftermath of further reporting by the Sunday Times that he was not an “agent of Russia”.
Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings said he was in the room when Cabinet Office officials told Johnson the intelligence services and “other parts of the deep state” had “serious reservations about the PM’s plan”.
He said the prime minister stopped talking to him about the issue and “got a stooge to creep into the Cabinet Office labyrinth and cut a deal”.
Rayner will ask the Cabinet Office to hand over all information about the appointment, but the wording of the address allows some parts to be redacted if there are national security considerations.
“This is an important matter of national security,” Rayner said before the debate. “The British public have a right to know if and how an individual of apparent concern to our intelligence services was granted a seat in the heart of our parliament by Boris Johnson, against security advice.”
Lebedev has previously said he is “not a security risk to this country, which I love”, and recently issued a statement through one of the newspapers he owns, the Evening Standard, in which he dismissed the “farcical” speculation as Russophobia.
He said some of the “incredible questions” posed to him by journalists were absurd as he denied being an “agent of Russia”. He also condemned the invasion of Ukraine and called on Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops.
