Boris Johnson has denied demanding a million-dollar fee for an interview with ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The US presenter accused the former prime minister of requesting the payment, equivalent to around £800,000, for the booking.

But Mr Johnson’s team dismissed this account as “untrue”, claiming Mr Carlson had been the one to make the offer.

They said Mr Johnson initially accepted, provided the money went solely to Ukrainian veteran charities. But he decided not to go ahead with it after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which has been widely blamed on the Kremlin.

Scathing attacks

Mr Carlson, an influential voice in Right-wing US media known for his scathing attacks on Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had been “annoyed” after Mr Johnson denounced him as a Kremlin stooge following his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He claimed he put in a request for an interview, which was initially declined. Eventually, he said he was told Mr Johnson was interested, but it was “going to cost you a million dollars”.

Speaking to Right-wing news channel Blaze TV, he said: “Finally one of his advisers gets back to me and says, ‘He will talk to you, but it’s going to cost you a million dollars.’

“He wants a million dollars, in US dollars, gold or bitcoin – this just happened yesterday, or two days ago.”

He added: “Then he will talk to you about Ukraine – he will explain his position on Ukraine.”

‘Traitor to journalism’

It is the latest flare-up in a row between the pair after Mr Johnson used his Daily Mail column to brand Mr Carlson “a traitor to journalism” for his interview with Mr Putin.

Mr Carlson denied supporting the Russian regime, but added: “Putin didn’t ask for one million dollars… This whole thing is a freaking shakedown.”

He said: “If you’re making money off a war, you know, you can deal with God on that, because that’s really immoral.”

The former prime minister said the presenter had betrayed “viewers and listeners around the world” for not taking Mr Putin to task for “the torture, the rapes, the blowing up of kindergartens” in Ukraine.

In the interview, the Russian leader insisted that Mr Johnson helped scupper a deal aimed at ending the war – a claim that has been denied by the former premier and rubbished by senior Ukrainian figures.