8 October | Andy Burnham attends business forum in Berlin (Alamy)
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Downing Street has said that Andy Burnham does not think Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum affected the result.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it was “inconceivable” that the Kremlin had not sought to use the referendum to their benefit, but said the Government did not believe it had succeeded.
“Given everything we know about Russia, it is inconceivable they did not seek to use the referendum to their benefit. But as the minister [Stephen Doughty] said this morning, we do not believe they have succeeded,” he said.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister “absolutely accepts the referendum result” and, after several attempts at asking, said: “Yes, we do believe the referendum results to be legitimate.”
Over the weekend, Burnham appeared on The Rest Is Politics podcast where he claimed that upon entering Downing Street he was told that Russia had interfered with the Brexit vote.
He told the 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.”
The intervention has fuelled speculation that he will use Russian interference as a pretext for re-running the 2016 referendum.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters on Monday: “He’s said this isn’t about leaping to a referendum or leaping to any option, it’s about being honest that Britain needs to settle its long term relationship with Europe.”
“He’s clear that the Brexit deal he inherited has left Britain worse off and we can do much better.”
Downing Street also pointed to “a pattern of behavior from Russia” that shows they have been “conducting a campaign of evidence for years”.
“We know, for example, that in 2020 the last government set out that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 election. We know they tried to interfere in the French election in 2017. It’s evident from that pattern of behavior that Russia has been conducting a campaign of interference for years”.
In January, Security Minister Dan Jarvis told Parliament that “successive governments have not seen any evidence of successful foreign interference” in the 2016 EU referendum. He also acknowledged that Russia posed an “enduring and significant threat” to UK democracy.
The government has announced the creation of the National Centre for Information Defence (NCID) to detect, attribute, and disrupt hostile state-backed disinformation and information warfare, including Russian interference.