{"id":799911,"date":"2026-10-12T06:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799911\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T06:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:36:15","slug":"uk-pm-andy-burnham-says-it-is-clear-russia-interfered-in-2016-brexit-vote-brexit-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799911\/","title":{"rendered":"UK PM Andy Burnham says it is \u2018clear\u2019 Russia interfered in 2016 Brexit vote | Brexit News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">The claim marks the first time a UK prime minister has publicly acknowledged Russia\u2019s interference in the vote to leave the EU.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/20\/andy-burnham-pledges-end-to-political-instability-as-he-becomes-uk-pm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Burnham<\/a> has said it is \u201cclear\u201d that Russia interfered in the country\u2019s 2016 Brexit vote, warning French and German voters of the same threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked the question coming to Downing Street: Was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? And I\u2019ve had the clear answer that yes, there was,\u201d Burnham said in an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast released on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>Burnham\u2019s comments mark the first time a UK prime minister has publicly acknowledged that Russia interfered in the UK\u2019s vote to leave the European Union. Burnham did not provide evidence for or details on the claim.<\/p>\n<p>He said that \u201cthese 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burnham said he spoke with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz about possible links between Russia and the far-right Alternative for Germany party when the two leaders met last week in Berlin.<\/p>\n<p>In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Burnham also condemned Russia\u2019s attempt to interfere in the UK\u2019s 2019 general election.<\/p>\n<p>According to a 2020 report by Parliament\u2019s Intelligence and Security Committee, the UK government had failed to ask for a deep assessment of Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 referendum. The report did confirm that Russia had meddled in the 2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2020\/7\/21\/russia-meddled-in-scottish-vote-unclear-on-brexit-uk-parliament\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scottish independence referendum<\/a>, however.<\/p>\n<p>Russia has repeatedly denied meddling in Western democracies or interfering in another country\u2019s elections or referendums, casting the UK as being gripped by \u201canti-Russian hysteria\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>UK reconsiders Brexit<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Burnham argued that the UK should reconsider options for a future relationship with the EU, including rejoining the bloc, reigniting the decisive debate more than a decade after the historic vote.<\/p>\n<p data-t=\"{&quot;n&quot;:&quot;blueLinks&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:13,&quot;a&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;b&quot;:76}\">He said that the UK\u2019s departure from the bloc had failed to fulfil Brexit supporters\u2019 pledge of \u201ctaking back control\u201d, and instead has made the UK weaker economically and on immigration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The claim marks the first time a UK prime minister has publicly acknowledged Russia\u2019s interference in the vote&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[934,461,591,935,819,59,145,57,58,50,229,154,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-799911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-brexit","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-gb","tag-germany","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}