Burnham confirms Russian meddling

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Russia clearly interfered in the two thousand sixteen Brexit referendum. He revealed he asked about Moscow's involvement on arriving at No ten this summer.

“was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? And I've had the clear answer that yes, there was.”

First PM to make it public

Burnham's comments on the Rest is Politics podcast are thought to be the first time a Prime Minister has confirmed Kremlin meddling in the referendum, fuelling speculation he wants to reverse Brexit.

Burnham signals EU reopening

At Labour's annual conference last month, Burnham announced he would look at options taking Britain closer to the EU bloc and suggested rejoining could be in Labour's next election manifesto.

Russian influence across Europe

Burnham told the podcast he spoke to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz about Russia's influence during a recent visit to Berlin. He said misinformation and disinformation from Russia are emanating into German politics.

“There is certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics.”

UK was too passive, Burnham says

Burnham said the UK had been too much on the back foot and voters had not been informed sufficiently about the extent to which people seek to disrupt the political process from overseas.

Parliament found Russian state media role

Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee found in two thousand twenty that the Government failed to fully assess the impact Russian state-run media and troll accounts could have had on the EU referendum.

Pro-EU groups call for membership restoration

Richard Kilpatrick of European Movement UK and Naomi Smith of Best for Britain said the confirmation validates suspicions. Smith said restoring EU membership is the only option to repair the damage caused.

“there is only one option on the table that could begin to repair that damage, and it's restoring our EU membership”