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A listening device was found in Boris Johnson’s personal bathroom at the Foreign Office after it had been used by Benjamin Netanyahu, the former British Prime Minister has claimed.
Johnson has alleged that when the Israeli Prime Minister visited his department in 2017, his security team foundbugging devices in the toilets after he had used the facilities.
During their meeting in his old office, Johnson says Netanyahu, who he calls Bibi, excused himself to go to the bathroom, which Johnson describes as similar to “the gents in a posh London club” which exist within a “secret annexe”.
In his book, Unleashed, Johnson writes: “Thither Bibi repaired for a while, and it may or may not be a coincidence but I am told that later, when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who Boris Johnson calls Bibi. Photo / AFP
When asked during an interview with The Daily Telegraph if he could give any more detail on what happened, Johnson said: “I think everything you need to know about that episode is in the book.”
It is not clear whether Israel was questioned or rebuked over the incident.
Around a similar time, Israel was accused of planting listening devices in the White House.
According to US officials, Washington concluded that Israel was likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around the capital.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo / AFP
Although having never worked in Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, Netanyahu is known to have worked closely with them.
As the second-largest espionage agency in the Western world after the CIA, it focuses on foreign intelligence gathering and covert operations.
During the meeting with Netanyahu, Johnson, then the British foreign secretary, describes how he felt like “Willy Wonka” as he showed him around his place of work in what was his first visit to the Foreign Office.
He writes how he joked about having the very walnut desk where the Balfour Declaration was written by Arthur James Balfour, where he set out “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.
In response, Netanyahu supposedly uttered “wow” and appeared “genuinely awestruck”.
Johnson then jokingly claimed to have the “very pen that he used”, only to pull a Bic biro out of his drawer.
He then confesses that he does not know how Balfour came to write the letter and that the walnut desk was unlikely the one at which it was composed by the former foreign secretary.
Unleashed by Boris Johnson will be published by William Collins on October 10.
