Burnham: ‘Clear answer’ that Russia interfered in Brexit vote
The prime minister did not say what evidence lay behind the answer, and a pro-Brexit group criticised the comments.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, telling a podcast that the answer to the question was “clear”.
Burnham told The Rest is Politics that, on arriving in Downing Street, the prime minister asked whether there had been Russian interference in the vote. “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was,” Burnham said.
Burnham gave no details of what Moscow was said to have done, or who had given the answer. Nor did Burnham say whether any interference affected the outcome of the referendum.
“I think we’ve been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven’t informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas,” Burnham said. The full interview is due to be released on 12 October.
The BBC reported that it is the first time a UK prime minister has said Russia sought to sway the Brexit vote.
Britain Unbound, a pro-Brexit campaign group, called the comments “another crude attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the decision that the British people made in 2016”. The group said foreign interference in UK elections was “obviously unacceptable”, but that there was “no good reason to believe that Russian intervention influenced the outcome of the referendum”.
Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee published a report on Russia in July 2020. It did not reach a definitive conclusion on whether Russia had tried to influence the result of the EU referendum, but criticised successive governments for failing to fully assess or counter the threat. The Russian foreign minister dismissed the report, and a Kremlin spokesman said Russia did not meddle in other countries’ elections.
Burnham said the problem of Russian interference had also come up in talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a visit to Germany. “There is certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics,” Burnham said. Putting these things clearly on the record would, Burnham believed, help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics was “instigated via our enemies, namely Russia”.
In a speech to the United Nations in September, Burnham accused Russian agencies of using “every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation”, and announced that the UK would set up a new centre to “stem the poisonous tide” of disinformation.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the government was focused on protecting citizens and institutions from foreign powers and their proxies, including by strengthening powers under the National Security Act.
