Clash of deputies at PMQs as Raab and Rayner spar over Lebedev peerage

Deputies clash at PMQs as Dominic Raab reminds Labour’s Angela Rayner of her backing for Jeremy Corbyn as she blasts Boris’s peerage for newspaper tycoon (and KGB agent’s son) Evgeny Lebedev over national security fears

• The two deputies clashed in the Commons as they stood in for their leaders 
• Tories face questions over peerage for Evening Standard, Independent owner
• But Raab cited Rayner’s support for Corbyn who ‘sided with Putin’ in the past  

Dominic Raab took aim at Labour counterpart Angela Rayner over her support for Jeremy Corbyn today as she attacked Boris Johnson’s decision to hand a peerage to a Russia-born newspaper tycoon.

The two deputies clashed in the Commons as they stood in for their leaders at a Prime Ministers Questions dominated by the war in Ukraine and its impact on the West.

Mr Johnson – who is in Saudi Arabia – and the Conservatives are facing questions over the seat in the Lords handed to Evening Standard and Independent proprietor Evgeny Lebedev despite objections from the security services.

Lord Lebedev of Hampton and Siberia, 41, is the Moscow-born son of a former KGB agent. Reports claim the intelligence services considered his ennoblement a national security risk, and the head of MI6 refused to meet him. 

Facing Mr Raab in the Commons today, Ms Rayner asked if the Prime Minister ‘ever asked anyone to urge the security services to revise, reconsider or withdraw their assessment’ of his suitability to sit in the upper chamber.

Facing Mr Raab in the Commons today, Ms Rayner asked if the Prime Minister ‘ever asked anyone to urge the security services to revise, reconsider or withdraw their assessment’ of his suitability to sit in the upper chamber.

But Mr Raab drew attention to Ms Rayner’s service in the shadow cabinet of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying the hard Left icon had ‘sided with Putin’ in the past.

Mr Johnson and the Conservatives are facing questions over the seat in the Lords handed to Evening Standard and Independent proprietor Evgeny Lebedev (left) despite objections from the security services.

‘There are now widespread reports that the Prime Minister did not accept warnings from our own intelligence services, granting a Russian oligarch, the son and business partner of a KGB spy, a seat here in this Parliament,’ she said.

‘It shouldn’t matter if such a warning was about a close personal friend of the Prime Minister. It shouldn’t matter if he gave the Prime Minister thousands of pounds of gifts. And it shouldn’t matter how much champagne and caviar he serves. There is no ifs or buts when it comes to the safety of the British people.’

But Mr Raab drew attention to Ms Rayner’s service in the shadow cabinet of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying the hard Left icon had ‘sided with Putin’ in the past.

Pointing out she had described Mr Corbyn as a ‘very strong leader, he added:  ‘Can I just gently say to her that when she was campaigning as the rest of them were to make the member for Islington North (Corbyn) prime minister, this Prime Minister was foreign secretary, leading the response to the nerve agent attack on Salisbury.’ 

‘The suggestion she’s making is sheer nonsense. But if she wants to talk about national security then I remind her that she and her shadow cabinet colleagues not so long ago wanted the honourable member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn)… a man who wanted and talked about abolishing the Army, pulling out of Trident – she voted for that.

‘Has there ever been a more ridiculous, reckless, naive moment to call for unilateral nuclear disarmament and pulling out of Nato?

‘A Labour government would put at risk our security. We’re doing everything we can to protect it.’

Labour last night faced questions over whether Sir Keir had welcomed a peerage Lebedev – who has used his papers to criticise the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Opposition Leader privately congratulated him when he was elevated to the House of Lords, sources told the Daily Mail.

He is believed to have sent the message to the phone of the media tycoon, who owns The Independent and London’s Evening Standard newspapers, when the political honours list was published in August 2020.

Yet yesterday Sir Keir insisted that Boris Johnson had ‘serious questions’ to answer over the peerage, following claims that the intelligence services considered it a national security risk, and the head of MI6 refused to meet him. 

The Labour leader has written to the House of Lords appointments commission in light of the ‘worrying reports’ and called on it to publish its advice to Mr Johnson on the vetting process for the peerage.

Yet yesterday Sir Keir insisted that Boris Johnson had ‘serious questions’ to answer over the peerage, following claims that the intelligence services considered it a national security risk, and the head of MI6 refused to meet him

Sir Keir told Sky News yesterday: ‘Of course, we shouldn’t just demonise people from Russia, I completely agree with that, but that isn’t the Lebedev case. The media today are saying there were further reservations by the security and intelligence services which were known before this appointment was made and we know that concerns were raised apparently with the Prime Minister.

‘In light of the further revelations today, I think the Prime Minister has got serious questions to answer: What did he know? And did he override security advice?’

Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen said it was another example of double standards from the Labour leader, who was pictured drinking a beer in an office during lockdown despite condemning staff gatherings in Downing Street at the same time.

‘Once again Keir Starmer has been caught out for his hypocrisy,’ he added. ‘He is Captain Hindsight, just a political weathervane who stands for nothing.’ He called on Sir Keir to fully disclose all his previous contacts with Lord Lebedev.

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