Lebedev holdings ltd
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Tory invited to Lebedev's villa with 'girls' and Boris Johnson - 'Profumo quit for less'
Former Tory Rory Stewart has revealed he was invited to Evgeny Lebedev's Italian mansion for a party where "there were going to be girls" and Boris Johnson.
The former Conservative, who was a minister at the time, said he was approached at the Tory Party's conference in 2018 when he was "Boris Johnson's deputy" in the Foreign Office.
The Prime Minister, who was Foreign Secretary in 2018, is under pressure over his links to media mogul Evgeny Lebedev.
It follows reports claiming MI5 and MI6 raised concerns before the PM elevated Baron Lebedev -the son of ex-KGB officer and Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev – to the House of Lords in 2020.
Mr Stewart recalled the ”absolutely bizarre” conversation at the conference, and being told he would be "flown out" to a mansion.
"I remember just after I was appointed (...) deputy to Boris Johnson, someone came up to me at party conference and said, would you like to come and spend the weekend with L
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Former politician Rory Stewart has revealed he was invited to Russian businessman Lebedev’s infamous Italian party where there would be ‘girls’ – and told ‘Boris Johnson the Foreign Secretary is coming’.
Stewart, 49, then Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said the incident was ”absolutely bizarre”.
Evgeny Lebedev, 41, who became Baron Lebedev in 2020, is the son of Alexander Lebedev – a billionaire former foreign intelligence operative in the Russian KGB.
Discussing the controversy surrounding Lebedev’s appointment to the House of Lords, Stewart recounted an incident in 2018 when he had been invited to a party by Lebedev’s staff.
He recounted the invite on Alastair Campbell’s ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast.
Stewart said: “The Lebedev thing is absolutely bizarre.
“I remember just after I was appointed as Minister of State to the Foreign Office – deputy to Boris Johnson.
“Somebody came up to me at party conference and said ‘would you
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Part 1 recalls Stewart’s progress, via the army, to a parliamentary seat. In part 2 he goes into government.
Minister of state
In 2015, after the general election, Prime Minister David Cameron made Rory Stewart Parliamentary Under-secretary in the Department of the Environment (DEFRA).
The secretary of state for the environment was Liz Truss, promoted by David Cameron at an early age because of her “strong media performances”. Stewart looked at a number of these, and concluded that:
“In none of them had she reflected, apologised, explained, empathised, or attempted to persuade. Nor did she ever … answer a question. Instead she approached interviews as broadcasts: opportunities to repeat the party attack line, never giving ground, or varying her tone … and although her speeches were generally confined to the blandest opinion, she delivered these banalities in the tone of someone challenging an entire establishment consensus.”
She liked to be provocative, and because she knew Stewart was a foreign policy specialist, said to him:
“I cannot see why you was
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