UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has publicly confirmed for the first time that Russia interfered in the UK’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership.
Burnham previously described Brexit, completed at the end of 2020, as a “disaster” that has done “more harm than good”.
The Labour leader made the disclosure on the podcast The Rest is Politics. Burnham, who became Prime Minister on 20 July, said he asked, after arriving in Downing Street, whether Russia had interfered in the referendum.
“The clear answer was yes,” he said. He added that the full scale of state-backed interference in Britain’s democratic process had not been understood at the time, but he did not provide further details.
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Burnham made the remarks while answering a question about the prospect of far-right election victories in Germany and France. He used the Brexit vote as an example to warn voters in both countries about Russian disinformation.
He said he hoped confirmation of interference in the Brexit referendum would help voters in Germany and France understand that some political developments are being driven by “our enemies, namely Russia”.
