"Report by the cross-party intelligence and security committee (ISC ) into illicit Russian activities in Britain could not say if it had affected the result of the 2016 vote.
Emily Thornberry, said disclosure raised “serious questions” about safeguards for the general election
Emily Thornberry, said disclosure raised “serious questions” about safeguards for the general election
“If it is correct that our security services have been unable to reach a conclusion about the extent or impact of Russian interference in the 2016 referendum, then it raises serious questions which require serious answers,” she said.
“Boris Johnson therefore needs to clear up the confusion, spin and speculation around this ISC report by publishing it in full at the earliest opportunity. If not, people will rightly continue to ask: what is he trying to hide from the British public and why?”
The ISC’s 18-month study of alleged Russian interference in the referendum is understood to have criticised British intelligence services for failing to devote enough resources to tackling threats from Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Anti-EU articles disseminated by Kremlin-sanctioned media outlets as RT and Sputnik in the run-up to the referendum campaign are cited in the report.
Social media analysis that was presented to the digital, culture, media and sport committee last year revealed that articles published by the Russian sites had four times more social media impact before the Brexit vote than the official leave campaigns.
260+ articles posted by RT/Sputnik in 6 months prior to referendum shared so widely on Twitter they could have been seen up to 134m times. By comparison, tweets from Vote Leave/Leave.eu — two biggest pro-Brexit campaign groups — generated impressions of 33m and14m.
Intelligence officials who have either seen or been briefed on the document said: “The government’s refusal to publish the report has been very damaging to the British intelligence community, because it suggests that we have something major to cover up.” thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/r…
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