SECRET documents brandished by Jeremy Corbyn during the general election were “almost certainly” spread by Russian hackers.
The Government have today claimed the leaked NHS documents held by Mr Corbyn were “amplified” by Russians.
The Labour leader had tried to use the leaked NHS documents used to smear the Tories ahead of his disastrous election result.
Now the Government has claimed “Russian actors” were involved in the spread of the document.
They were first uploaded onto the internet site Reddit – but got no attention.
Russian actors then sought to promote them further and get more media attention to try and interfere in the UK’s election, the Government said.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab explained: “The Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents.
“Sensitive Government documents relating to the UK-US Free Trade Agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 General Election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit.
“When these gained no traction, further attempts were made to promote the illicitly acquired material online in the run up to the General Election.
“Whilst there is no evidence of a broad spectrum Russian campaign against the General Election, any attempt to interfere in our democratic processes is completely unacceptable. It is, and will always be, an absolute priority to protect our democracy and elections.
“There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to say anything further at this point.”
The Government said today:
- A criminal investigation is taking place to find those who leaked the documents
- A series of documents were put online but Russian actors were involved in trying to get it more traction
- More sanctions were threatened in response to the news
The online forum Reddit confirmed the leak was linked to the Kremlin in December last year.
The dossier of leaked minutes from trade talks, which Mr Corbyn claimed was evidence Boris Johnson would sell the NHS to Donald Trump, was ripped off the website.
A statement from Reddit at the time said: “We were recently made aware of a post on Reddit that included leaked documents from the UK.
“We investigated this account and the accounts connected to it, and today we believe this was part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia.”