Members of the British government question whether Stanley Johnson, the father of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is serving as an informal diplomatic background channel for 10 Downing Street. This question comes after Johnson Sr. conveyed a message from Chinese Ambassador to London Liu Xiaoming, in which the ambassador expresses his concern that the Chinese government has not received a personal message from the Prime Minister regarding the outbreak of the Corona virus. Stanley then conveyed this concern by email to Secretary of Environment and International Development, Zach Goldsmith. Tension has erupted between the British and Chinese governments over criticism of how China has dealt with the virus. While sending that message, Johnson Sr. accidentally sent a copy of the message to a member of the BBC, revealing relatively sensitive dates for the prime minister’s visits to China. It seems that Lord Goldsmith did not discover the error.
There appeared to be a clear concern in some political circles about the possibility of Stanley Johnson playing the role of the informal back channel between the London-based ambassadors and 10 Downing Street.
In his 90-minute meeting with Stanley Johnson in London, Liu said that Boris Johnson did not directly contact the Chinese. He commented inside the message: "Regarding the outbreak of the Corona virus, Liu was clearly concerned that there was no direct contact between the prime minister and the head of state or the Chinese government, or even a personal message or a phone call."