MI5 chief warns against exaggerating ‘Russian influence’ on Brexit

Ken McCallum’s remarks came after Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed Moscow had interfered in the 2016 referendum

MI5 chief Ken McCallum has urged the public not to exaggerate the impact of alleged Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum.

McCallum’s comments came after some pro-Brexit politicians accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of questioning the legitimacy of the vote by claiming it was “clear” that Moscow had interfered. Russia has consistently denied seeking to meddle in British domestic politics, including the 2016 referendum.

“There is a really important difference between interference attempted and outcome swayed … It’s quite important to focus on the difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted,” the UK spy chief said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Guardian.

McCallum suggested that “Russian trolls” would “be delighted because they are front page news again despite the comparative unimpressiveness of what they do at all points along the journey.”

“I am a little bit anxious that we don’t play into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10ft tall,” he said.

Without providing supporting data, the MI5 chief claimed that Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, “came in pretty strongly around the referendum,” and that “there was a certain amount of interference attempted through trolls and bots and so forth.”

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In 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU despite the government campaigning to remain. The unexpected result prompted Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to resign.

Appearing on The Rest Is Politics podcast over the weekend, Burnham said, “I asked the question coming to Downing Street, was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? And I’ve had the clear answer that yes, there was.” According to Reuters, he did not provide evidence of the alleged interference attempts.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who was a leading figure in the Leave campaign in 2016, called Burnham “a liar.”

“There was no Russian interference. And the Russia hoax has run all the way through this,” Farage said.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the prime minister of having “implied that the referendum result was illegitimate because of Russian interference.”

Following the backlash, the government said Burnham “absolutely accepts the referendum result.”

RT has long denied attempting to sway the Brexit vote. “British PR professionals failed to properly promote the benefits of Britain’s EU membership and blamed their failure on RT and Sputnik. They cannot accept that their fellow citizens are capable of thinking for themselves, reading something other than The Times, and voting as they please,” RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said in 2018.