U.K. Prime Minister States Russia Interfered in Brexit Referendum

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has publicly stated that Russia interfered in Britain's 2016 EU referendum. Burnham made the disclosure in a podcast interview, saying advisers confirmed the interference when he took office in July. He also discussed with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz potential Russian links to the Alternative for Germany party. Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee had previously found in 2020 that the government did not fully assess the potential impact of Russian state-run media on the Brexit vote.

Burnham, who holds the office of Prime Minister, told reporters that Moscow's role in the Brexit vote can be substantiated, and contended that placing that involvement on the formal record carries weight at a time when governments across Europe are wrestling with comparable threats to their own electoral systems. The podcast, due out Monday, will carry Burnham's account of receiving what he described as a conclusive answer confirming such activity had occurred, along with his view that putting these matters on the record could help voters in Germany and France understand that some of the political activity in question draws on interference by hostile foreign actors — a characterisation Russia rejects, maintaining as it has throughout that it plays no part in shaping the electoral or referendum outcomes of other countries. At the time Burnham made those remarks, U.K. intelligence bodies had already been issuing alerts about Russian attempts to interfere in the country's democratic processes. Searches of the public record have turned up no previous instance of a British prime minister making such a statement in an official setting, and the intervention under examination stands as the point at which that threshold was crossed — placing the question of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum on the table in an official capacity for the first time. Burnham described how, at a Berlin meeting the week prior, Chancellor Friedrich Merz put forward the view that the Alternative for Germany party holds connections to Russia — among them what Merz characterised as financial ties — while Burnham added his own assessment that misinformation and disinformation of Russian origin had been working their way into German political discourse.

U.K. Prime Minister States Russia Interfered in Brexit Referendum

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U.K. Prime Minister States Russia Interfered in Brexit Referendum

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