British Prime Minister Says Russia Meddled in 2016 Referendum on Leaving EU

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that Russia ‌interfered in the UK’s 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, and warned voters in France and Germany about efforts the Kremlin may be making to influence their political systems.

Burnham, who last month said that the UK could consider rejoining the EU, is the first British prime minister to publicly say there was evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum, in which voters narrowly voted to leave the bloc.

“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 told The Rest Is Politics podcast, which aired on Sunday.

“And 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 did not elaborate on how he believed Russia interfered and gave no evidence to support his claim.

He said people had not been sufficiently informed about the extent to which bad actors sought to disrupt the political process.

Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU in June 2016, triggering a negotiation process that absorbed British politicians for several years. The UK finally left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020.

Burnham Calls AfD ‘Threat’

Burnham said the UK had a “decade of drift and division” since Brexit.

He also said he told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last week that the UK would support him to take on the “threat” he faced from the right-wing Alternativ fur Deutschland (AfD) party.

“[Merz] was saying to me that the AfD are clearly linked to Russia, funded I believe,” Burnham said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the AfD for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

After a meeting in Berlin, Burnham’s office said in an Oct. 8 statement that the UK and Germany were launching a partnership to counter sabotage and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

A British official on Monday told Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge that Russia had attempted to interfere in the referendum, but had not succeeded.

“They do attempt to interfere in our processes, have attempted to interfere in a whole number of them, and of course, it’s not just Russia, it’s other countries, too,” British Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said.

‘Insulting’ to Brexit Voters

Britain Unbound, which describes itself as a nonpartisan campaign group for a sovereign and independent UK, said Burnham’s comments were an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the referendum result.

“There is no good reason to believe that Russian intervention influenced the outcome of the referendum in 2016,” the group wrote in an Oct. 11 post on X. “It is also insulting to suggest that voters were so easily duped.”

The UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee conducted an inquiry into alleged disinformation and fake news between 2017 and 2019, which examined evidence of possible Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

The committee said in its report that the government has not seen evidence of “successful use of disinformation by foreign actors, including Russia, to influence UK democratic processes,” citing the government’s response to a previous report.

“It is not that they have not tried, but we have not seen evidence of that material impact,” then-Culture Minister Jeremy Wright told the committee.

Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC in November 2019 that no evidence existed of Russian interference in UK politics. Johnson backed the campaign to leave the EU.

Burnham, like most Labour Party lawmakers, backed the campaign to stay in the EU.

In July 2020, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia had sought to influence voters at the Brexit referendum.

“Russia has never interfered in the electoral processes of any country in the world, not the United States, not Britain, nor any other countries,” Peskov said.

The Russian Embassy in London has not commented on Burnham’s comments, but on Friday it criticized the British government’s latest sanctions.

“Each new list is meant to demonstrate London’s resolve, but in reality highlights that its course is ineffective and pointless,” it said in a post on X.

Reuters contributed to this report.