Ken McCallum\u2019s remarks came after Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed Moscow had interfered in the 2016 referendum<\/p>\n
MI5 chief Ken McCallum has urged the public not to exaggerate the impact of alleged Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the UK\u2019s 2016 Brexit referendum.
\nMcCallum\u2019s comments came after some pro-Brexit politicians accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of questioning the legitimacy of the vote by claiming it was \u201cclear\u201d that Moscow had interfered. Russia has consistently denied seeking to meddle in British domestic politics, including the 2016 referendum.
\n\u201cThere is a really important difference between interference attempted and outcome swayed \u2026 It\u2019s quite important to focus on the difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted,\u201d the UK spy chief said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Guardian.
\nMcCallum suggested that \u201cRussian trolls\u201d would \u201cbe delighted because they are front page news again despite the comparative unimpressiveness of what they do at all points along the journey.\u201d
\n\u201cI am a little bit anxious that we don\u2019t play into our adversaries\u2019 hands by making these trolls look 10ft tall,\u201d he said.
\nWithout providing supporting data, the MI5 chief claimed that Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, \u201ccame in pretty strongly around the referendum,\u201d and that \u201cthere was a certain amount of interference attempted through trolls and bots and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
UK PM accuses Russia of Brexit meddling (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
In 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU despite the government campaigning to remain. The unexpected result prompted Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to resign.
\nAppearing on The Rest Is Politics podcast over the weekend, Burnham said, \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 According to Reuters, he did not provide evidence of the alleged interference attempts.
\nReform UK leader Nigel Farage, who was a leading figure in the Leave campaign in 2016, called Burnham \u201ca liar.\u201d
\n\u201cThere was no Russian interference. And the Russia hoax has run all the way through this,\u201d Farage said.
\nConservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the prime minister of having \u201cimplied that the referendum result was illegitimate because of Russian interference.\u201d
\nFollowing the backlash, the government said Burnham \u201cabsolutely accepts the referendum result.\u201d
\nRT has long denied attempting to sway the Brexit vote. \u201cBritish PR professionals failed to properly promote the benefits of Britain\u2019s EU membership and blamed their failure on RT and Sputnik. They cannot accept that their fellow citizens are capable of thinking for themselves, reading something other than The Times, and voting as they please,\u201d RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ken McCallum\u2019s remarks came after Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed Moscow had interfered in the 2016 referendum MI5 chief Ken McCallum has urged the public not to exaggerate the impact…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t