MI5 boss warns the debate on Russian interference in the Brexit vote risks empowering Kremlin trolls

The head of MI5 has warned the debate on Russian interference in the Brexit referendum risks empowering the Kremlin. 

Sir Ken McCallum waded into the row today after Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a podcast that he had been told 'clearly' on arriving in Downing Street that Vladimir Putin had meddled in the 2016 vote.

It sparked a row in which Mr Burnham was accused of lying about the issue by his political opponents, with the Prime Minister eventually forced to concede that the result is legitimate. 

The MI5 Director General said today there had been attempts to influence the vote but cautioned that Britain shouldn’t ‘play into our adversaries' hands’ by rerunning the issue. 

This weekend Mr Burnham told The Rest Is Politics 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.'

Today, Sir Ken said Russian media and Russian trolls had clearly attempted to influence the vote.

Speaking at MI5’s Thames House headquarters, the spymaster said: ‘It is a matter of public record - including in Select Committee reports published in 2019 - that in 2016, before you get to any secret intelligence, it is openly on the record that Russia Today and Sputnik, and other Russian media organisations, came in pretty strongly around the time of the referendum.

'It is also a matter of open-source record that there was a second line of interference attempted through trolls.

'I agree strongly with what the Prime Minister said yesterday.'

But he continued: ‘It is kind of up to us how far we allow our adversaries to divide us. I’m a little bit worried that if we all stay in this debate for another few days, the Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that much at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted they are front page news once again despite the comparative unimpressedness of what they do at all points along the journey.

‘I’m a little bit interested that we don’t play into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10 feet tall. That is not our experience.’

Mr Burnham was forced into retreat yesterday after being accused of 'lies' about Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

In an embarrassing U-turn, he admitted he has no evidence that the Kremlin successfully meddled in the 2016 vote, a claim he made just 24 hours earlier.

Yesterday Boris Johnson told the Daily Mail that 'Burnham's Brexit lies have come back to bite him.' And Nigel Farage branded Mr Burnham's comments 'outrageous', adding: 'The Prime Minister is a liar.'

Despite the climbdown, the PM vowed to press ahead with his bid to unpick Brexit, claiming it would be a 'dereliction of duty' to ignore the chance for a closer relationship with Brussels.

He said sticking with the status quo was 'not good enough for Britain' as he opened the door to a return to free movement with the EU after the next election. 

Ministers, however, struggled to defend the claim yesterday and Downing Street was eventually forced to clarify that the PM accepts the referendum result was 'legitimate'.

In the Commons yesterday Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded the PM 'publish the evidence that Russia swung the result of the 2016 referendum'. She added: 'The Prime Minister implied that the result was illegitimate because of Russian interference. Where has that come from?

'We all remember that in 2018, the head of MI5 said that there was no evidence that Russia had influenced the EU referendum result.

Mr Burnham insisted he had 'implied no such thing'. He conceded he had no evidence that the Kremlin had influenced the outcome of the vote.