Sir Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, has said today:
“I’m a little bit worried that if we all stay in this debate for another few days that the Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted.
They are front page news once again, despite the comparative un-impressiveness of much of what they do at all the points along the journey.
I am a little bit anxious that we don’t play into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10 feet tall. That’s not our experience of them.
There is a really important difference between interference attempted and outcome swayed. It’s quite important to focus on the difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted.”
He then said he agreed with what Burnham said in the Commons yesterday, including regarding Russian leaking in the 2019 General Election. Guido wonders who his substantive point is referring to…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.