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A 31-year-old who was controversially made a peer by Boris Johnson is to take over the pro-Brexit Guido Fawkes news site.
Ross Kempsell – now Lord Kempsell – was the former prime minister’s spokesman and reportedly his tennis partner.
The Independent also revealed last month that a PR firm he set up accumulated more than £2m in assets in just 12 months – and includes Mr Johnson as one of its clients.
Now the peer is to take over the reins at the site, which describes itself as a “blog of plots, rumours and conspiracies” and says it campaigns against “political sleaze, corruption and hypocrisy”.
Labour accused Mr Johnson of cronyism when he elevated Lord Kempsell, who was reportedly a key figure in “Operation Save Big Dog”, the fight to keep Mr Johnson in office in the wake of the Partygate scandal.
He was named in Mr Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list, after the ex-PM was finally ousted from office.
His PR firm Hyannis Strategy, also has a contract with news channel GB News, which Mr Johnson is due to join as a commentator and presenter.
The former journalist is also friends with Mr Johnson’s wife, Carrie Johnson.
Both of them attended an anniversary dinner for the Guido Fawkes site on Wednesday night, marking 20 years since it first arrived in Westminster.
The event, in London’s Pall Mall, was also attended by another former Tory prime minister, Liz Truss.
Lord Kempsell takes over the running of the website from its founder Paul Staines.
Last month The Independent also revealed that the woman Mr Johnson made Britain’s youngest peer, Charlotte Owen, has a plum new job at an environmental consultancy chaired by the ex-PM.
Now Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge after entering the House of Lords at the age of 30, she has been appointed vice-president of the company Better Earth.
Her elevation attracted significant scrutiny just six years after she started working in politics and following a brief stint as his aide.
Mr Johnson became chair of the consultancy in May.
