Boris Johnson met ‘London professor’ linked to FBI’s Russia investigation

Foreign Secretary has been seen in a photograph with Joseph Mifsud, alleged to be a high level go between for the Trump campaign and the Kremlin

The Foreign Secretary is under pressure over his alleged links to Kremlin go betweens (Reuters)

Boris Johnson is facing fresh scrutiny after a picture emerged of him at a dinner with the "London professor" linked with the US President Donald Trump-Russia probe.

Joseph Mifsud was named in the statement of charges made by US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller against George Papadopoulos – a former Trump campaign staffer who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about statements relating to “dirt” on Hillary Clinton he was offered during the election campaign.

The Maltese-born professor reportedly told a colleague he was meeting the Foreign Secretary to “discuss Brexit” in October but Mr Johnson denied having ever met him.

The news brings up concerns about the influence of the Kremlin on UK politics and the EU referendum in particular.

Mr Johnson, who was a prominent member of Vote Leave, is allegedly a member of an intricate web of relationships between a known Russian spy deported from the UK in 2015 and the chief executive of the official Brexit campaign, Matthew Elliott, the Observer reported.

The other man in the photo, businessman Prasenjit Kumar Singh, said he and Mr Mifsud met Mr Johnson at a Brexit event at the London School of Diplomacy and had chatted “about normal things”.

Asked if Mr Mifsud had introduced himself to the politician, Mr Singh said he did not know but it his first time meeting him.

Ben Bradshaw, former Labour Cabinet Minister, told the Observer: “It’s inconceivable that the FBI didn’t tell their UK counterparts about Mifsud … so how was this allowed to happen?”

The FBI is said to have known about Mr Mifsud’s links to Russia since July and under the terms of the Five Eyes intelligence agreement the UK, the US and three other nations share important information with each other.

It comes as Mr Johnson is already under fire for his response to a gaffe where he wrongly claimed a British-Iranian woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, imprisoned in Tehra, had been in the country training journalists when she says she was actually on holiday.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has led calls for Theresa May to finally sack her errant Foreign Secretary after he doubled down on his comments regarding Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, refusing to apologise to her or her family and potentially causing her to face further criminal charges meaning an extra five years in prison.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the Andrew Marr programme: “This is the latest gaffe made by own Foreign Secretary. He has offended the Libyans in relation to what he said about Sirte being 'the new Dubai should they get rid of the dead bodies'.

“He's offended the Americans by saying President Obama is anti-British because he's 'part Kenyan'.

“He's offended the Spanish, he's offended Sikhs with what he said about whisky tariffs in the Gurdwara. I think he has got to go.

“I think he is our Foreign Secretary whose job is diplomacy in the best interests of our country and if Theresa May was a strong Prime Minister she would have sacked him a long time ago.”