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Boris Johnson did not tell the most senior civil servant in his department when foreign secretary that he was travelling to Italy without any security protection for a party attended by Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB agent.

Lord Simon McDonald, who was permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office at the time, has told a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast on Tuesday night that he was unaware of the visit.

In July last year Johnson admitted he had met the Russian billionaire in April 2018 while attending a party at the restored castle in Perugia owned by Lord Evgeny Lebedev, his son.

The visit occurred only one month after Russia launched a chemical attack on UK soil, poisoning a former double agent and his daughter and killing a British woman in Salisbury.

Johnson, who was prime minister from 2019 to 2022, last year told MPs on the liaison committee that he did not take any official papers with him and that officials were aware in advance that he was attending the social event. “I think I did mention it, yes,” he said.

Johnson said in a statement to the committee in July 2022 that it would not have been normal practice for civil servants or security officials to accompany him on “such a private, social occasion”.

“As far as I am aware no government business was discussed.”

But McDonald, the former Foreign Office mandarin, has told Dispatches that he was taken by surprise when he later discovered Johnson had travelled to see the Lebedevs at the luxury villa.

“I did not know in April 2018 that Boris Johnson intended to go to Italy to see the Lebedevs immediately after the Nato summit. No. He did not tell me at the time. But I was surprised when I found out later,” he said.

However, McDonald admitted to the FT that Johnson could have told other officials about the trip. “You would have expected him to tell the principal private secretary,” he said.

Alexander Lebedev, who made his fortune in banking, energy, aviation and hotels, has presented himself as a champion of media freedom as part-owner of campaigning Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Yet in May 2022 he was sanctioned by the Canadian government in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Dispatches programme explores how the Lebedev family became influential in London after taking control of the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers more than a decade ago. Evgeny Lebedev is currently majority shareholder of the Standard and minority shareholder in the Independent.

Johnson, who received regular support from the Standard when he was London mayor, attended Alexander Lebedev’s 60th birthday the night after he won the 2019 election.

Earlier that year he had nominated Evgeny Lebedev for a peerage soon after becoming prime minister for the first time.

Dispatches reports that a letter from the House of Lords Appointment Committee (Holac) warned against the nomination because of the national security risks associated with the Russian entrepreneur’s “familial links”.

The programme claims the security services gave Johnson an in-person briefing in Downing Street in an attempt to persuade him to halt the nomination. When he did not change his mind, officials contacted Buckingham Palace to ask whether the Queen could intervene — although she refused.

Lord Clark, a Labour peer who was on Holac at the time, told the programme that Johnson’s attempt to “over-rule the security advisers” was “probably unheard of in modern times”.

“I’ve never heard of officials seeking a meeting with Her Majesty to discuss these issues,” he said. “We’ve got to remember these people, they are aware of things which you and I aren’t aware of . . . they were really concerned about this, they thought it was a major, major mistake.”

Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, said: “This is the first case where we’ve seen a significant national security concern in the appointment of a member of parliament, certainly in the House of Lords.”

A spokesperson for Johnson said “proper process” was followed and there were “no concerns” about Lord Lebedev. The spokesperson added that Lebedev was a UK citizen, who “has invested in British journalism”, and said “Holac and security advice was not over-ruled”.

“This is a tiresome and xenophobic campaign,” the spokesperson said.

He also insisted Johnson had told officials about his Perugia trip, adding: “It would have been much more normal to tell the private office officials than call the permanent secretary.”

Lord Lebedev’s office declined to comment.

Alexander Lebedev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.