Angela Rayner responds to Government’s refusal to comply with Humble Address motion relating to Lord Lebedev's peerage

Angela Rayner MP, Labour's Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, responding to the Government’s refusal to comply with the Humble Address motion calling for documents relating to the appointment of Lord Lebedev to the House of Lords, said:

“This looks like a cover up and smells like a cover up because it is a cover up. If the Prime Minister is claiming he was not involved in forcing through the award of a peerage to an individual of concern to our intelligence services, he should come clean and publish the documents as Parliament instructed.

“The Government has not provided a single piece of information in these heavily redacted documents, failing to comply with a direct instruction from Parliament. The Government is once again seeking to hide in the shadows from the sunlight of scrutiny. We will take steps to rectify this contempt of Parliament.

“The public have a right to know the truth about Boris Johnson’s interference in the appointment of his friend Lord Lebedev, the son and business partner of an ex-KGB agent, to a seat in the heart of our Parliament. It is time to get to the bottom of this whole murky business.”