How significant are Burnham’s remarks on Kremlin interference in Brexit vote?

Prime minister has reopened the debate over whether Russia did seek to influence the 2016 referendum

Andy Burnham unexpectedly reopened an old Brexit debate when he said he had been told after becoming prime minister that Russia had interfered in the 2016 EU referendum.

“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,” he said.

“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,” he said.

A possibility is that he was given a summary of a recent assessment by the UK’s intelligence agencies, in effect a formal conclusion by them. Another is that it was a relatively informal conversation with officials, where opinions were simply exchanged.

The topic was addressed by parliament’s cross-party intelligence and security committee in its Russia report, published in July 2020, which took evidence in secret from the UK’s intelligence agencies before publishing a partly redacted report.

Second that Russian English-language media outlets RT and Sputnik published a large amount of anti-EU and pro-Brexit content, which had a wide reach. The digital campaign group 89up said the two broadcasters had published 261 articles that achieved 134m potential page impressions.

A subsequent investigation by the National Crime Agency into £8m-worth of loans Banks provided to Brexit campaigns run by Farage concluded the money was legitimately his and there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

Burnham is due to make a Commons statement on Monday afternoon on Brexit and Europe, where he will also have the opportunity to say if the intelligence agencies have made a fresh assessment about whether there was Kremlin interference in 2016. If he fails to do so, he risks being accused of exaggeration.