Corbyn was a ‘useful idiot’ leaking classified documents to discredit the Conservatives
JEREMY CORBYN was used as an unwitting “useful idiot”, a think tank claimed after the Government said it was “almost certain” Moscow attempted to interfere in last year’s election.
The former Labour leader faced a fresh backlash last night over his decision to promote classified UK-US trade documents as evidence that the Tories were seeking to “sell off ” the NHS.
In a statement yesterday, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said the Government had concluded that “Russian actors” tried to “amplify” the papers after they were “illicitly acquired” and later posted on the Reddit website.
“On the basis of extensive analysis, the Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked government documents,” he added. A criminal investigation into the initial leak of the documents is ongoing.
Ministers did not confirm whether the Russian state was suspected of being behind the influence campaign, although Mr Raab said the Government reserved “the right to respond with appropriate measures in future”. Mr Corbyn
seized on them during the election campaign to warn that Boris Johnson was preparing to open up the NHS to American pharmaceutical companies in a trade deal with Donald Trump.
Just days later, it emerged that UK intelligence officials were investigating how the documents were leaked, while
The Daily Telegraph reported mounting fears that it was linked to Moscow.
Separately, Reddit said it believed a group linked to Russia were behind the document’s dissemination online.
Labour refused to say at the time how it obtained the papers, although an ally of Mr Corbyn suggested last night that the party only received them after they were leaked online.
In a statement last night Mr Corbyn said the Government’s announcement was an attempt “to distract from the damage a Trump trade deal would do to our NHS by continuing to push the bogus claim Labour received Russian support” and “to divert attention from the threat to the NHS and the Tory party links to Russian oligarchs expected to be revealed in the long-buried parliamentary Russia report.”
Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said “hack-andleak” attacks were a “standard Russian technique”.
“These operations don’t succeed without somebody to promote the leaked material. They depend on useful idiots on the target side. In this case it was the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn.”
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said: “Since 2018 the foreign affairs committee has been warning about Russian interference in the UK. We’ve followed the corruption of our institutions and the rise of useful idiots.”
A Labour Party spokesman said: “We condemn any attempt by Russia, or any foreign power, to interfere in our country’s democratic processes.”