Leader of the British right-wing populist Reform UK party Nigel Farage has accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of the United Kingdom of hypocrisy after he appeared to revive claims that Russia successfully interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, only to walk back his remarks in Parliament days later.
Farage argued that PM Burnham could not be trusted to defend British sovereignty, warning that the Prime Minister’s apparent closeness to Brussels was a cause for serious concern, Breitbart Europe reports.
The controversy began when Burnham appeared on The Rest Is Politics, a podcast hosted by former adviser to PM Tony Blair Alastair Campbell and pro-Remain former Conservative minister Rory Stewart. During the weekend interview, the Prime Minister revisited allegations of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum, prompting accusations that he was casting doubt on the result’s legitimacy.
Successive Conservative and Labour governments have maintained that, although Russia may have tried to interfere in one of Britain’s largest democratic exercises, there was no evidence that such efforts changed the outcome. Critics argued that Burnham’s remarks went further by citing Russian interference in the referendum as a fact.
‘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,’ Burnham stated during the podcast.
However, when challenged in Parliament on Monday, 12 October, the PM denied suggesting that Russia had altered the result. He instead pointed to documented Russian attempts to interfere in the 2019 general election, arguing it was inconceivable that this had been the first such attempt.
‘I implied no such thing in my comments,’ Burnham told the MPs. ‘It is a matter of record, Mr Speaker, that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election. And we think it is inconceivable that this was the first time.’
Nigel Farage quickly highlighted what he described as the Prime Minister’s hypocrisy, pointing to Burnham’s previous insistence that the Brexit debate should not be reopened. According to the Reform UK leader, Burnham had consistently argued that the referendum result was settled and that revisiting the issue would only deepen divisions in British society.
In a post on his new Substack outlet, Farage accused the Prime Minister of reviving allegations of Russian interference to compensate for a lack of substance as his government approached its first 100 days in office.
‘In addition to debating me [on Britain’s relationship with Europe], the Prime Minister is also going to have to debate himself along the way. Well, his former self,’ Farage wrote, recalling Burnham’s earlier statements opposing a renewed Brexit debate.
‘The one who declared just this year that “the last thing we should do right now is rerun those [Brexit] arguments”…On 4 June, he said, “rerunning Brexit now would be a mistake, because it would just entrench that feeling of division.” What happened to that sentiment?’
Farage argued that Burnham used allegations of foreign interference, alongside ambiguous remarks about Britain’s relationship with the European Union, to create a political foothold for his early premiership.
Nigel Farage went on to say that any serious examination of foreign interference in British politics should include the role of former US President Barack Obama, who travelled to London, United Kingdom, during the 2016 referendum campaign and warned that Britain would go to the ‘back of the queue’ for a trade deal with the United States if voters chose to leave the EU.
The Reform UK leader noted that some Brexit supporters widely viewed Obama’s intervention as an attempt to influence the referendum, and that it may have backfired by provoking resentment among British voters.
‘Still, it’s not like foreign governments don’t try this stuff. It would be naive to think that, especially given former President Barack Obama’s overt intervention in Brexit,’ Farage wrote.
He further alleged that the intervention had taken place with the cooperation of then-Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, arguing that foreign influence on British politics should not be discussed selectively.
‘Not only has no one demanded an investigation into that foreign interference in our democratic process, but disgracefully, it appears that it was undertaken in collusion with David Cameron’s “Conservative” government at the time,’ he added. ‘If you want to talk about foreign interference in British politics, you have to start with Brussels. It should worry everybody that it seems to have a vice-like grip on Andy Burnham.’
Farage concluded by expressing concern that the Prime Minister appeared comfortable with what he characterised as a submissive relationship with the EU.
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