‘UK took its eye off the ball over Russia’
Report says impossible to tell if Kremlin had meddled with 2016 EU referendum
THE GOVERNMENT “took its eye off the ball” and did not look for Russian interference in UK politics, a hard-hitting report has found, as it was warned the superpower’s influence in the UK is “the new normal”.
The much-anticipated Russia report, released by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) yesterday, found that it was impossible to know whether Russia interfered with the 2016 EU referendum simply because there had been no assessment of whether that had been the case, a position which committee member and Labour MP Kevan Jones said was “shocking”.
Mr Jones said: “The outrage is that no-one wanted to know if there was interference.”
Fellow committee member and SNP MP Stewart Hosie added: “No-one wants to touch the issue with a 10ft pole.”
The report said: “Until recently, the Government had badly underestimated the Russian threat and the response it required.”
The committee found that, until recently, the Government had not taken any steps to investigate what influence the country’s disinformation campaigns may have had on key political decisions such as Brexit.
Mr Hosie said: “There must now be one (an assessment) and the public must be told the result of that assessment.”
But in a 20-page response, the Government said: “We have seen no evidence of successful interference in the EU referendum.”
It said intelligence and security agencies produce and contribute to regular assessments of the threat posed and added: “Given this long-standing approach, a retrospective assessment of the EU referendum is not necessary.”
The ISC report said there was
“credible open source commentary suggesting that Russia undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014”.
And it added: “It was only when Russia completed a ‘hack and leak’ operation against the Democratic National Committee
in the US (in 2016) – with the stolen emails being made public a month after the EU referendum – that it appears that the Government belatedly realised the level of threat which Russia could pose in this area.”
The University of Sheffield’s Professor Matthew Flinders said: “In 55 pages that include 175 redactions, the only thing this report clarifies is that nobody seems to know what Russia might – or might not – have done.
“In places the report reads more like a script from Yes Minister than a long-awaited and serious security report.”
The report said lessons were learned from the US experience but “had the relevant parts of the Intelligence Community conducted a similar threat assessment prior to the referendum, it is inconceivable that they would not have reached the same conclusion as to Russian intent, which might then have led them to take action the protect the process.”
The report itself was released nine months after it was completed, but Mr Jones said there was “no reason” for the delay in the publication. He said claims by the Prime Minister it required six weeks to get his confirmation for the report were “categorically not true”.
In its response, the Government said it had “long recognised there is an enduring and significant threat posed by Russia to the UK and its allies, including conventional military capabilities, disinformation, illicit finance, influence operations, and cyber-attacks. As such, Russia remains a top national security priority for the Government”.
Labour will today table an urgent question on the report. Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said that “on every level, the Government’s response does not appear to be equal to the threat”.