Russian diplomats accessed private area of UK parliament in security breach
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Exclusive: MPs warned not to invite Russian diplomats to parliament after incident said to have alarmed ministers. Russian diplomats accessed a private area of parliament in a major security breach just before Christmas that has alarmed security officials and prompted private warnings from the speakers of both houses, the Guardian understands.
The small group of diplomats joined a public tour of the Houses of Parliament and then broke off to enter a part of the House of Lords that was out of bounds, before they were found by security and thrown out. “We suspect they were just wanting to crow to the Kremlin that they had infiltrated the British parliament. It’s not ideal but they were caught before any damage was done,” a parliamentary source said.
UK government ministers, however, were said to have been alarmed by the attempt to breach parliamentary security, which is understood to have occurred late last year. As a result of the attempt, MPs and peers have been given a written warning not to invite Russian diplomats to parliament. It is unclear whether the group were on a guided tour sponsored by a politician, or if they requested one from the parliamentary visitors’ service.
The Russian ambassador, diplomats and officials based at the embassy in London have been banned from visiting parliament since 2022 when many MPs and peers were sanctioned by Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. The Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and the Lords speaker, Lord McFall of Alcluith, on Thursday privately reminded MPs and peers that they should be cautious about Russian efforts to penetrate parliamentary security.
