Andy Burnham faces fresh fury for his Brexit blunder which has become a propaganda gift for Vladimir Putin. The head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, warned that reopening the row over Russian interference in the historic referendum will delight Moscow's propagandists.
Sir Ken said trolls did “attempt” to meddle in the historic vote. But the intelligence chief declared it is “important to focus on the difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted.” And he warned Moscow will be “delighted” the issue is dominating the agenda again.
Critics hit out at Prime Minister
Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat told the Daily Express: “First, we had Miliband responding to threats from Iran with handshakes, a Foreign Secretary so naive that he gives Iran a propaganda win while they’re threatening Britain, murdering their citizens, and arming terrorists.
“Now we have a PM who has accidentally given Russian trolls a lap of honour. This will put rocket boosters on those who spread misinformation online, dividing Britain and our allies whilst empowering Russia's efforts to undermine Ukraine.
“This is amateur hour. We’re seeing naivety at the highest level. We should be showing our strength, not talking up our enemies. They failed. We shouldn’t be encouraging others to think they succeeded and copy them.”
Former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: “Burnham is naive and utterly foolish to reopen the debates around Brexit in such an ill-informed way. He is playing into the hands of our adversaries and emboldening those who seek to do us harm at a time when hostile states are undermining our democracy and way of life.”
Alex Burghart, the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, said: “The head of MI5 has issued an extraordinary slap down to the Prime Minister over his comments about Russian interference in the Brexit vote.”
MI5 chief warns of new era
Sir Ken warned Britain has entered a “new era of national security” where the “cohesion and confidence of our communities has become a national security front line”. “Those who mean us harm are trying – often with a helping hand from polarising algorithms – to divide our communities and turn us against one another”, he warned.
The Director General confirmed Russian media organisations “came in pretty strongly around the time of the referendum”. He told reporters: “There is a really important difference between interference attempted, and outcome swayed. It’s quite important to focus on the difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted.
“It is also a matter of open source record that there was a second line of interference attempted through trolls. I agree strongly with what the Prime Minister said yesterday.
“It is kind of up to us how far we allow our adversaries to divide us. I’m a little bit worried that if we all stay in this debate for another few days, the Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that much at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted they are front page news once again despite the comparative unimpressiveness of what they do at all points along the journey.
“I’m a little bit interested that we don’t play into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10 feet tall. That is not our experience.”
Mr Burnham faced a furious backlash after reigniting Britain’s Brexit debate by claiming the historic decision to leave the EU was influenced by Moscow. He told the Rest is Politics podcast: “I asked the question coming to Downing Street, well was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.
“These things are important now to put clearly on the record and I believe help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely, Russia.”
Threats to UK security
Sir Ken warned Britain’s adversaries are trying to “manipulate how we feel”. And they are “weaponising whatever frictions they notice” in societies. He added: “Their trolls aren’t geniuses, by the way, they only get a foothold if we give them one.
“It is never my job to offer commentary on our nation’s politics. One of the founding reasons for MI5’s existence, enshrined in the Security Service Act, is to defend democracy, at the heart of which is free and open debate. But the threats we see show that the manner of that debate matters. Our adversaries want to abuse our very freedoms to polarise us. Our cohesion counts.”
Social media, the head of MI5 warned, is having a distorting impact on community tensions. Sir Ken said: “In the era we’re now in, the cohesion and confidence of our communities has become a national security front line. Those who mean us harm are trying – often with a helping hand from polarising algorithms – to divide our communities and turn us against one another.
“The sharpest form this takes is lethal violence. We were all horrified by the murder of Ann Widdecombe in July. Sadly, the case is part of a concerning trend of violence targeted at political figures, religious or community groups and more.”
Sir Ken, in his annual threat update, warned Russia remains "aggressor number one", motivated by hostility towards the West's support for Ukraine. And intelligence chiefs fear they will continue attempting to wreak havoc for years. He said: “We are planning on the basis that these risks will endure. Some of these vulnerabilities are inherent in handling an open society in a connected era, AI isn’t going away, there isn’t a priority that that will be something that is going to go away by the end of next year.
“Irrespective of what happens in Ukraine, it is quite hard to see the Kremlin suddenly decide to rub along with us all after all. So we are planning that this is going to be a long-haul contest.”
And Sir Ken warned Iran is ramping up terror plots on UK soil, with Tehran now targeting military bases. Sir Ken said that MI5’s state threats caseload has quadrupled in the past 10 years, adding: “In 2026, MI5 is devoting more resources to countering state threats than during the Cold War.”
The intelligence chief revealed “the major shift this year has been Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets like military sites” in the UK. He added: “There have been other examples, not just in the UK but around the world, including most specifically in Iran’s own region where we’ve clearly seen attempts to target [military] sites.”
Overall, MI5’s caseload on state threats has quadrupled over the past decade. Sir Ken added: “Russian military and intelligence services are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare — being careful to stay below the Nato Article V threshold it’d be foolish for them to cross.”
But they are increasingly reliant on criminal groups to carry out their dirty work. “Their global footprint of operatives is weaker than it once was . . . because of the mass expulsions. What we’re seeing instead is attempts to use, principally, the internet, through cryptocurrency payments, through online applications, to hire or pay, or sometimes not even pay, those willing to do their dirty work here.
“We are in effect . . . [facing a] capability challenge for an organisation like MI5, where we need to detect people who are of a different shape than what the Russians would typically have used over generations.”
