Andy Burnham's exchanges with someone pretending to be Donald Trump's chief of staff were most likely the work of Iranian, Chinese or Russian espionage, according to an international relations expert. The Prime Minister sent messages to an imposter posing as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, before concerns were raised.
Security failure blamed
Professor Anthony Glees of The University of Buckingham said Mr Burnham was let down by his security staff, who "plainly" did not tell him that Ms Wiles' phone had been hacked in May 2026 and that messages purporting to come from her were likely compromised and needed to be examined by GCHQ.
The specialist stressed that the implications could be serious, noting that the PM "relies on his security staff" as he does not manage his own security. What concerns Professor Glees is "not Burnham's being made a fool of, that's happened to loads of government and public figures," he said.
Potential content of messages
"It's that he sent text messages and over a period of time, so the contents of those messages were likely to be serious, of national and international importance," Professor Glees said. "My guess is that they would be about Burnham's views on international affairs, particularly perhaps Trump and Netanyahu's war on Iran, and Putin's war on Ukraine."
This is because the US President would want to know if the Prime Minister shared Ed Miliband's view of him - the former Labour leader previously called Mr Trump a "racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper" - and why Mr Miliband was made Foreign Secretary.
Likely culprits
As to who may be behind the fake messages, Professor Glees thinks it would have been a foreign intelligence service operating in the USA, given the FBI is involved. "The most obvious culprit is likely to be the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence service, they are very good at this kind of thing. We know they have been on rampage in the USA and we know that the FBI have failed to contain the threat they pose. But it could be the Russians, it could be the Chinese," he said.
"I think the implications could be truly serious. It so happens that Burnham has seemed much more focused on his domestic political agenda than on foreign affairs and if this is what Andy was saying in his texts, the damage will have been less severe than if he'd really set out his high policy to the person he thought was whispering into Trump's ear. I don't believe any of this is Burnham's fault. But he won't be happy at being made a fool of. The red faces will be found at GCHQ who ultimately are responsible for his electronic communications with world leaders."
A UK Government spokesperson said: "We do not comment on national security matters."
