In 2018, the British Prime Minister had met with Russian agent Alexander Lebedev after the chemical attack in Salisbury
The revelation of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that he had met with the former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev at the height of the Novichok nerve agent poisoning case in Salisbury constitutes a “serious breach of security”, according to opposition Labour.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the meeting between then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Lebedev as “unthinkable” given the timing in the wake of a chemical attack on British soil.
During his appearance before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday Johnson first admitted meeting with the Russian oligarch without officials present in April 2018.
Pressure has since been mounting on the prime minister to explain the nature of the meeting, which came immediately after a NATO meeting on how to respond to the Kremlin.
Speaking to Sky News today, Cooper said: “We don’t know what happened at that meeting, we don’t even know if the Prime Minister actually disclosed that there was going to be a meeting or told officials afterwards.
“It is simply inconceivable that at a time when we had a chemical attack on British soil and it was so serious that we would convene a meeting of NATO on how to respond to Russia, the foreign secretary goes to meet with a former KGB agent, someone who has since been sanctioned by Canada for close ties to President Putin. Meeting at that time shows an irresponsible disregard for national security risks. We need to know the facts of what happened and why he was so irresponsible to our national security during that time,” Cooper said, among other things.
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