BORIS Johnson has warned against allowing a “witch hunt” against Russians in the UK.
Johnson was questioned on his personal involvement with Russian media mogul, Evgeny Lebedev, after the Russian was successfully granted a peerage despite concerns raised by the secret service about the country's national security.
Lebedev is the child of oligarch and former KGB agent, Alexander Lebedev, and has been a friend of the Prime Minister for some time. In December 2020, he was installed in the House of Lords as a life peer – after warnings from MI5 and MI6 were dropped.
The warnings were passed to the House of Lords Appointments Commission, who then wrote to Johnson in March of 2020, making him aware of the concerns.
According to the Sunday Times, Johnson brushed off these concerns at the time as "anti-Russianism", putting pressure on the concerns to be dropped, and then met Lebedev at his home two days after the initial rejection. No 10 declined to reveal what was discussed during this meeting.
On Monday, in response to questions about the Prime Minister's relationship with Lord Lebedev during a press conference, Johnson responded: “It is very, very important that this should not turn into a general sense that ‘we’re against Russians – any Russian – living in the UK, any Russian who contributes to UK society should suddenly be under suspicion’ – that suits Putin’s agenda.
“He’s going to want to frame this as a conflict between Russia and the West."
READ MORE: Jacob Rees-Mogg's claim about Russian money backfires spectacularly
“This is about the Ukrainian people, their struggle against a murderous attack on their liberty, and a murderous and a violent attack on cities in Ukraine that have done absolutely nothing to deserve it.
“We must not play Putin’s game and somehow turn this into a witch hunt against every Russian in the UK.
“It’s absolutely vital we focus on what Putin is doing and we call them out for what he’s doing.”
He also denied intervening to override security concerns about the peerage granted to Lebedev, below.
“That is simply incorrect,” he told reporters. “It suits Putin’s agenda to try to characterise this as a struggle between the West and Russia.
“It suits his agenda to say that the UK, that we in Nato countries, are anti-Russia, European countries are now anti-Russian.
READ MORE: Ian Blackford doubles down on commitment to removing Trident nuclear weapons from Scotland
“It’s very, very, very important that we get the message over that we’re not anti-Russian, we’re not against Russians. Our quarrel is simply with the regime and the aggression of Vladimir Putin.”
Johnson said it would “obviously be extraordinary” if the security services had deemed Lord Lebedev to be a risk and the Prime Minister had intervened to ensure the peerage was granted, “but that’s not the case”.
During the same conference, he sidestepped a question about whether he met Lord Lebedev in March 2020, at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, to discuss the peerage.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel