Ten years on, Britain’s prime minister says Russia meddled in the Brexit vote—and warns Germany and France

In a podcast interview released on October 11, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, marking the first time a British prime minister has publicly acknowledged such meddling. Burnham's remarks were released by the Associated Press and are believed to be unprecedented in their admission of foreign interference in a British election.

Russian information warfare appears to be an ongoing threat to European elections. German security sources reported in August that Moscow was intensifying disinformation campaigns prior to German state elections, while Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation identified over 200 Russian fake news sites targeting France in 2022.

Burnham told the Rest Is Politics podcast that he inquired with his advisers about potential Russian interference in the 2016 vote after taking office in July. He confirmed, "the clear answer was yes, there was." Burnham emphasized the necessity of acknowledging such interference clearly on record, without providing specifics about the methods used or evidence, noting that Russia has consistently denied involvement in foreign elections.

He also mentioned a recent discussion with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin, during which the chancellor alleged that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is closely linked to Russia and receives funding from them. Burnham argued that revealing this interference would help voters in Germany and France understand that some political activities are orchestrated by their adversaries, primarily Russia.

In 2020, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found that the UK government had intentionally avoided investigating potential Russian interference in the Brexit referendum, despite the presence of open-source evidence suggesting Russian attempts to sway the campaign. The government rejected the committee's recommendation for a review, stating, "we have seen no evidence of successful interference in the EU Referendum."

The same year, the UK government acknowledged that Russian actors had likely interfered in the 2019 general election by amplifying leaked UK-US trade documents. Since 2019, Burnham has maintained that Russia spent approximately £1.3 billion annually on manipulating information, roughly translated to $1.7 billion at current exchange rates.

At the UN General Assembly in September, he cited evidence of Russian interference in the 2019 general election but did not specifically reference the 2016 Brexit referendum. He also mentioned that Britain had previously assisted Moldova in securing its elections against Russian influence. The once-taboo topic of Russian assassination plots against European defense officials is now escalating, with intelligence agencies warning of increasingly bold hybrid warfare tactics by Russia.