The British prime minister rejected the idea that the United Kingdom voted in favor of Brexit because of Russian election interference.
Boris Johnson, the leader of the Conservative Party who took over for former Prime Minister Theresa May in July 2019, appeared before the House of Commons on Wednesday for Prime Minister’s Questions, where he discussed the new 55-page report assembled by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. The Russia report, written with the help of outside witnesses, including British-ex-spy Christopher Steele, concluded that Russia poses a significant security threat to the U.K. and that British intelligence had not thoroughly investigated Russian meddling in U.K. elections such as the European Union referendum.
“There is no country in the Western world that is more vigilant in protecting the interests of this country or the international community from Russian interference,” Johnson said. “It is the U.K. that leads the world in caution about Russian interference.”
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer attacked Johnson over the Russia report, asking, “The prime minister received that report 10 months ago. Given that the threat as described is immediate and urgent, why on earth did the prime minister sit on that report so long?” Starmer also said that “the report was very clear that until recently the government has badly underestimated the Russian threat and the response it required.”
Johnson, who had made Brexit central to his successful general election campaign against former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 by promising to follow through on the 2016 referendum in which the U.K. voted to leave the EU, said that the criticisms were all about casting doubt on Brexit.
“Remainers have seized on this report to try to give the impression that the Russian interference was somehow responsible for Brexit. The people of this country didn’t vote to leave the EU because of pressure from Russia or Russian interference,” Johnson said. “They voted because they wanted to take back control of our money, of our trade policy, of our laws.”
Home Office security minister James Brokenshire also said Wednesday that “we categorically reject any suggestion that the U.K. actively avoided investigating Russia.” Brokenshire said that “our world-class intelligence and security agencies continue to produce regular assessments of the threat posed by hostile state activity.”
He pointed to Britain’s response to the Russia-backed Salisbury attack, the U.K.’s opposition to the invasion of Crimea, last month’s imposition of Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russian officials, and last week’s condemnation by the U.K. of Russian hackers targeting coronavirus vaccine research.
The heavily redacted U.K.-Russia report released earlier this week concluded that, although there were “widespread public allegations” about Russian meddling in Brexit, “the impact of any such attempts would be difficult — if not impossible — to assess, and we have not sought to do so.” The report noted that “the written evidence provided to us appeared to suggest that [Her Majesty’s Government] had not seen or sought evidence of successful interference in UK democratic processes or any activity that has had a material impact on an election” such as influencing the results.
But last week, the British government separately concluded that Russian actors likely attempted to interfere in the 2019 parliamentary election by highlighting leaked United States-U.K. trade negotiation documents that Corbyn made a key part of his campaign against Johnson.
“The UK is clearly a target for Russia’s disinformation campaigns and political influence operations and must therefore equip itself to counter such efforts,” the new Russia report concluded, adding, “Overall, the issue of defending the UK’s democratic processes and discourse has appeared to be something of a ‘hot potato,’ with no one organisation recognising itself as having an overall lead. In our opinion, the operational role must sit primarily with MI5.”
The parliamentary inquiry also warned about the influence of Russian money in British society and politics.
“Whilst the Russian elite have developed ties with a number of countries in recent years, it would appear that the UK has been viewed as a particularly favourable destination for Russian oligarchs and their money,” the report concluded, adding, “It is not just the oligarchs either: the arrival of Russian money resulted in a growth industry of enablers — individuals and organisations who manage and lobby for the Russian elite in the UK. … The links of the Russian elite to the UK — especially where this involves business and investment — provide access to UK companies and political figures, and thereby a means for broad Russian influence in the UK.”
