Boris Johnson claims listening device was found in Foreign Ministry bathroom after 2017 visit by Netanyahu

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that a listening device was discovered in his personal bathroom at the Foreign Office following a 2017 visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The incident, detailed in Johnson's forthcoming memoir Unleashed, suggests that the bug was found after Netanyahu used the facilities during a meeting with Johnson.

The claim has sparked intrigue, as Johnson told how Netanyahu excused himself during their meeting to visit a secluded bathroom of the Foreign Office, described by Johnson as being akin to "the gents in a posh London club.”

After Netanyahu exited the bathroom, a routine security sweep found the listening device, according to Johnson, commenting that “it may or may not be a coincidence.”

When asked by British daily The Telegraph for more details of the incident, Johnson suggested in effect the anyone curious should buy the book, due for release next week in the UK.

Saying that while giving a Foreign Office tour to Netanyahu he felt like Willy Wonka, the children’s book and film character, Johnson added that a highlight of the visit was showing the prime minister a special desk. At this desk, he said, then-Foreign Secretary James Balfour wrote the eponymous 1917 declaration paving the way for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

The declaration was pivotal, as it laid the foundation for the state of Israel, though some Palestinians might instead call it disastrous.

When shown the desk, Netanyahu reportedly said "wow.”

But Johnson confessed in his memoir that he was unsure whether the desk had any historical significance, and Balfour probably did not use it as he initially claimed.

Johnson himself served as foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018 before becoming prime minister in 2019, serving a tumultuous term before he resigned in 2022 in the face of scandals.