Russia report has implications for Boris Johnson and Alex Salmond – Ian Murray MP

In 1963 the James Bond franchise released its second movie, From Russia with Love, with everyone’s favourite James Bond, Sean Connery. The film sees 007 on the search for a Russian decoding machine, known as “Lektor”. It’s an all-time fictional classic.

The long-awaited release this week of the independent Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report on Russia read more like a new 007 script.

This report is over a year old and has been suppressed from public view by the Prime Minister. It appears that it has been hidden for political reasons. It is not hard to see why.

The report is damning and very clear that the Government “badly underestimated the threat from Russia” in their interference in British democracy and national security. It says the Government “took their eye off the ball” and is still “playing catch up”, despite repeated warnings.

It exposes deep, long-standing failings in this Government’s approach to national security and instead of acting quickly and decisively, the Prime Minister delayed the report for political expediency. Why does all this matter? Well, the report shines a light on what we have suspected for many years – that the UK is “clearly a target for Russia’s disinformation campaigns”, in order to influence elections, as well as conducting serious organised crime.

Instead of burying this cross-party report and rejecting its recommendations the Prime Minister needs to bring forward urgent legislation to close gaps in national security in order to protect the country and maintain our proud democratic traditions.

Rising tide of fake news

Russia has a recent history of hostile activity in the UK from the Salisbury poisonings to the murder of former Russian officer, Alexander Litvinenko. They are seen as a highly capable cyber actor that considers UK elections one of their primary targets.

Given we are increasingly reliant on social media for election campaigning there is little regulation around the rising tide of disinformation and fake news.

The report leaves two major questions outstanding. Did Russia influence the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum and what involvement did they have in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014? These questions arise because the written evidence provided to the ISC appeared to suggest the Government had not seen or sought evidence of interference in UK democratic processes. But who provided the written evidence? It was the Government themselves. No wonder they were so desperate to delay the report’s publication.

I was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee for three years and state-actor interference in our democratic and economic structures was a common feature in our reports. We published “Moscow’s Gold: Russian Corruption in the UK” back in 2018 that examined the UK being a base for corrupt Russian state-connected individuals and their money with the implications for national security.

Salmond should not be on Russia Today

The report’s recommendations were far-reaching but few were implemented. One thing we could do quickly is to stop feeding the Russian propaganda vehicles. Russia Today is a Kremlin-backed broadcasting channel that really doesn’t require the involvement of senior politicians. Former First Minister Alex Salmond should not be a major contributor as this merely helps to legitimise these issues.

As Keir Starmer said at Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour Party is under new management. Under Keir’s leadership, national security will always be our top priority. That is why we are calling for the media regulator, Ofcom, to review its licence and determine if it has a role in the undermining of our democratic structures.

Boris Johnson’s response to all of this was to try to ensure he appointed the chair of the ISC in order to ditch the report. He didn’t get his way after MPs elected their own chair. I think the PM’s response tells you all you may need to know about why this report was suppressed in the first place.

Until we have a full inquiry into the accusations of Russian interference in the EU referendum and their involvement in the Scottish referendum, we won’t have the confidence that our democracy is clean, fair and impenetrable.

Ian Murray is the Labour MP for Edinburgh South

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