Nigel Farage has called PM Andy Burnham “a liar” - as usual Farage is talking boll****

Andy Burnham has just become the first prime minister to confirm Russian interference in the Brexit vote. There is certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics, as I heard yesterday. And I've asked the question myself coming in to this role, because I gave a speech to the UN recently on this very topic. I don't think we knew back then the extent to which there was state-sponsored interference in the British democratic process. But I asked the question coming into Downing Street, Well, was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? And I've had the clear answer that yes, there was. As the Prime Minister correctly points out. Alan, 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. The Prime Minister also took aim at Russian disinformation in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, where he suggested there is evidence the Kremlin also sought to interfere with the 2019 general election. In recent years, we have seen industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and that of many of our allies. Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people's fears. We have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 general election. Their response from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was predictable. The Prime Minister is a liar. Yes, a liar. Boris Johnson, when he became Foreign Secretary, one of the first questions he asked was, was there seen to be Russian interference in the referendum campaign? And the answer was no. Well, let's take a look at that. Here is then Prime Minister Boris Johnson on BBC Question Time in November 2019. When will you release the Russian report? This is the report into whether or not there was Russian interference or any kind of... There is absolutely no evidence that I know of... If that's the case, then why not release it? To show any interference in the... Then why do you have to... When the Russia report, a parliamentary report into allegations of Russian interference in British politics, was finally published in July 2020, its conclusions were damning. But not for the reasons you might expect. The UK government have actively avoided looking for evidence that Russia interfered. We were told that they hadn't seen any evidence, but that is meaningless if they hadn't looked for it. Remember, while sitting on the report during the 2019 general election campaign, Johnson had repeatedly said this. There's absolutely no evidence that I've ever seen of any Russian interference in UK democratic processes. Not surprising, given the committee's findings that... The UK government have actively avoided looking for evidence that Russia interfered. And it just got worse. Why do you think that they didn't? Well, I think we used the term in the report that people thought it was a hot potato that no one wanted to deal with. Because they didn't want to offend Russia, or because they didn't want to look too closely at what had happened here, or they didn't want to feel that there were holes in what they'd done already? Well, I think internal politics, possibly the Conservative Party, had more to play on that. But, you know, what we found was quite shocking. You submitted this report, I think it was October the 17th last year. Is it clearer to you now why this was made public just one day before summer recess? No, because what shocked me is the way in which Number 10 has tried to mislead. You know, they said that the Prime Minister only had six days to read this report. Not true. They then said it needed six weeks to get this confirmation. that's not true either. They then said it needed to go around for more work on it, that's not true. And then they tried to rubbish the entire process, and that's not true either. Following the report's publication, Johnson actually had the front to tell Parliament this. After all, if he thought there was genuinely something in the ISC report that showed that, for instance, the Brexit referendum had been undermined by Russia, then he would now be saying, but that doesn't appear. Our democracy has never been more vulnerable. The Russia report itself warned of credible Kremlin interference years ago and recent cases have shown how real and organized this threat still is today. So next time you hear Farage say this, there was no Russian interference, please remember he's talking complete bollocks.