NEW NORMAL? DON’T BUY IT

PARLIAMENT’S intelligence and security committee last year declared Russian influence in the UK as “the new normal”.

As if that wasn’t worrying enough, who was reportedly given the contract to carry out crucial work on the new media suite at No.9 Downing Street which included installing computers, cameras, microphones and a control desk?

It was Russian-owned company Megahertz. The chair of parliament’s cross-party group on Russia said it sounded “dodgy”.

Downing Street could not say whether the work was put out to competitive tender, and did not publish the contract.

A source said the government could have used a British firm for the job, and that it could have been done for hundreds of thousands, rather than millions, of pounds.

Surely, having a Russian firm involved in carrying out this type of work in Downing Street adds a worrying dimension to their Machiavellian approach to the awarding of contracts?