BORIS Johnson is coming under increasing international pressure over a suppressed report into Russian interference in the UK’s politics.
The document, which has been cleared for release by the security services, was supposed to have been published last week, but Downing Street says the full sign off process has not yet been completed.
It will not now be made public until after the December 12 election.
It’s understood that the report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, includes allegations of espionage, subversion and interference in elections. It also contains the names of nine high-profile Tory donors.
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Yesterday the SNP’s Defence Spokesman Stewart McDonald suggested the Prime Minister’s decision to sit on the dossier posed a “serious threat to our democracy.”
He was speaking after former US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the delay “inexplicable and shameful”.
Clinton told the BBC: “Every person who votes in this country deserves to see that report before your election happens,” the former US presidential candidate said.
“That should be an absolute condition,” she said.
“Because there is no doubt – we know it in our country, we have seen it in Europe, we have seen it here – that Russia, in particular, is determined to try to shape the politics of western democracies.
“Not to our benefit, but to theirs.”
She also told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett: “I find it inexplicable that your government will not release a government report about Russian influence. Inexplicable and shameful.”
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak said the report had to be “properly processed” before being made public.
“The standard process for reports like this is that they have to go through an appropriate period of vetting, due to the sensitive nature of the information they,” he said.
He said the report was received at the end of October and the vetting process could take several weeks.
“It’s right that [reports like this are] properly processed to ensure our security and I think those processes are being followed,” he added.
McDonald, who is also the SNP’s candidate for Glasgow South, said: “The longer Boris Johnson suppresses the security report on Russian interference, the more questions are raised about what the Tories are hiding.”
He added: “With a General Election looming, Johnson’s decision to sit on the report is unjustifiable and poses a serious threat to our democracy.”
Clinton’s comments came as the Labour Party reported at least two “sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attacks” on its digital platforms.
The party has not said which systems were subject to the hack, but reports suggest election and campaign tools which could contain sensitive information about voters and supporters were targeted.
The National Cyber Security Centre is investigating the attacks.
It’s thought Labour fell victim to what’s known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, with hackers attempting to overwhelm and compromise the party’s servers.
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