UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has spoken out after he exchanged messages with someone pretending to be Donald Trump's chief of staff. Mr Burnham, MP for Makerfield and new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said he is not embarrassed by the incident and insisted that he handled it correctly.
The Prime Minister was in contact with an unknown individual pretending to be top White House aide Susie Wiles, but he became suspicious after several messages and reported the incident. Downing Street sought to downplay the communication between the PM and the imposter, maintaining that they "do not comment on national security matters."
Burnham's response
Asked by broadcasters on Tuesday (August 18) if he was embarrassed by the contact, Mr Burnham said: “No, I’m not." Speaking from Wolverhampton bus station, Mr Burnham added: "[I'm not embarrassed] because there was a minimal exchange, nothing of consequence, and actually, quickly I realised that this needed to be reported, and I did so.
“So I handled it in the right way. All politicians are receiving these pressures and these challenges, but I did everything right. There was a minimal exchange of information of zero consequence, and it was quickly reported.”
Asked what action had been taken to find out who had impersonated the White House chief of staff, Mr Burnham replied: “The correct action has been taken here and in the US.”
Background to the incident
Reports emerged on Monday about the exchange of messages. Two officials said that the British embassy in Washington was so concerned it raised the matter with the White House. Ms Wiles' phone had previously been hacked, according to reports from America, but a US official told Politico that the incident involving Mr Burnham was not related to this.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI had launched an investigation into efforts to access Ms Wiles' phone after an unknown person contacted prominent Republicans and business chiefs while pretending to be her. Mr Trump later appeared not to be aware of the incident, saying to reporters at the White House about Mr Burnham: “I’m sure that he had a miscommunication.”
Previous hoax incidents
Mr Burnham is not the first high-profile British political figure to have come into contact with an impostor. Footage of a hoax call in which then-foreign secretary Lord David Cameron believed he was speaking to former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko was released by the UK Government in 2024. The Foreign Office said the perpetrators in that case were “clearly Russian” and made the incident public in a bid to pre-empt any effort to manipulate the video.
In 2022, then-home secretary Priti Patel and then-defence secretary Ben Wallace were also targeted by hoaxers suspected of working for the Kremlin.
