New laws to stop Russia meddling in UK elections

THERESA MAY is planning the most radical overhaul of election laws for nearly two decades in an effort to stop interference by ‘hostile actors’ such as Russia and Iran.

Amid growing evidence that thousands of Moscowbacked Twitter accounts rallied behind Jeremy Corbyn in last year’s General Election, the Prime Minister is set to block all foreign spending on UK Elections.

Although there is already a bar on foreign donations to political parties, a loophole allows other countries to fund social media campaigns during British elections.

University academics say more than 6,500 Russian internet robots – known as bots – masquerading under English names were bombarding voters with anti-Tory messages during the 2017 campaign.

More than 80 per cent of the automated accounts were set up in the weeks before the Election.

By making it an offence to fund such campaigns, the Tories believe social media companies such as Twitter would be forced to shut down ‘bot’ operations funded by ‘Moscow gold’.

Agents linked to foreign powers such as Iran will also be forced to declare their connections on a public register. The move is designed to prevent a repeat of incidents such as the live filming by Iran’s Press TV of last month’s no confidence vote on pro-Israel Labour MP Joan Ryan.

Tory Party chairman Brandon Lewis said: We need new measures to protect our nation’s democracy from emerging threats abroad.’