Neil Kinnock comments Andy Burnham surfaced alongside Ken McCallum’s account of Russian activity around the 2016 Brexit referendum. The MI5 chief said Moscow tried to interfere, but he said there was no evidence the vote was swayed.
McCallum said anti-EU coverage on RT and Sputnik formed part of the effort, and that troll social media accounts made up a second line of interference. He said the debate should not be allowed to split people further, and warned that prolonging it would suit Russia.
McCallum on RT and Sputnik
McCallum said the broadcasters “came in pretty strongly around the time of the referendum”, and he set out “what may have been attempted and what actually resulted”. That distinction matters because he paired a claim of attempted interference with a narrower assessment of its effect.
He said “there was a second line of interference attempted through [internet] trolls”, and added that “if we all stay in this debate for another few days, the Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that much at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted they are front page news once again despite the comparative unimpressedness of what they do at all points along the journey.”
Andy Burnham and the Commons
The same day, Pat McFadden used a Commons statement to attack Andy Burnham’s plan to replace the current triple lock with an adjusted version. He said he had “a file as thick as my morning porridge full of quotes from the Tories saying that the triple lock is unsustainable and will have to be changed.”
McFadden also cited Helen Whately, who called the Labour policy “a U-turn in waiting”, and Tom Tugendhat, who described it as “simply not affordable” and “a Ponzi scheme.” He said Nick Timothy wrote the 2017 manifesto that pledged to replace the triple lock with a double lock.
Stella Creasy in Walthamstow
Lord Gove added a separate line in an LBC remark, saying he would “declare that I will be campaigning at the next general election exclusively for Stella Creasy in Walthamstow” if Burnham changed the triple lock. Burnham has promised serious dialogue over the UK’s relationship with the EU, but McCallum’s comments leave the security claim narrower: Russia tried to interfere, yet MI5 says the referendum result was not shown to have been changed.
