Summary

  • Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) releases damning report detailing Russian interference in British politics

  • It criticises successive UK governments for failing to properly assess and counter the threat Russia posed to Scottish independence and Brexit votes

  • The UK "actively avoided" recognising Russia threat, ISC member Stewart Hosie says

  • Mr Hosie, an SNP MP, says the government "did not want to know" if Russia sought to interfere in 2016 Brexit vote

  • The UK has taken its "eye off the ball" and "badly underestimated" the threat posed by Russian intelligence services, Mr Hosie added

  • Britain is one of Russia's top intelligence targets in the West, the report says

  • It calls for a major overhaul of government structures to better defend British democracy

  • The committee said there was "no reason" for the report's publication to be delayed

  • No 10 was accused of holding back the report ahead of December's UK election - which it has denied

  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejects the findings: "Russia has never interfered in electoral processes in any country"

  1. Action over Salisbury poisonings 'unprecedented'published at 10:59 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    Skripals

    Kevan Jones says the expulsion of Russian diplomats following the Salisbury poisonings was "unprecedented".

    It "sent a clear and strong message that actions must not be tolerated", he says.

    "We must build on that momentum and that momentum must not be lost."

    The poisoning with nerve agent of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 is one of only a number of recent cases in the UK and across Europe linked to Moscow.

  2. UK has 'actively avoided' looking for Russian interference in domestic politicspublished at 10:57 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    The effectiveness of Russian bots, trolls and disinformation during the EU referendum has never been proved, says the SNP's Stewart Hosie.

    The UK government has "actively avoided" looking for evidence that Russia interfered during the Brexit referendum, he states.

    The government should have recognised the threat during the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, but it didn't until after the 2016 US Presidential Election, he says.

    He adds that there must be an "assessment" of Russian interference in the EU referendum, and the public "must" be given information on that assessment.

    He says there is "retrospective work" which needs to be done to assess the effects of Russian interference on previous elections and refendums.

  3. Russian oligarchs 'welcomed with open arms'published at 10:52 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    The committee

    Mr Jones continues: "The outrage isn't if there is interference, the outrage is no-one wanted to know if there was interference.

    "What we do know about Russian interference in the UK is it is the new normal."

    "Successive governments" have welcomed Russian oligarchs "with open arms", he says, including those with links to the Russian President Vladimir Putin,

  4. When was the report written?published at 10:51 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    Dominic Grieve

    The report was investigated and written during the previous session of Parliament.

    This meant the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee at the time was Dominic Grieve, who stood down as the Conservative MP for Beaconsfield at the last election.

    The new Chair, Julian Lewis, is a former Chair of the Defence Committee in Parliament.

  5. 'Must be ministerial priority' to look into hostile threatspublished at 10:45 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    Kevan Jones says: "The question is who is protecting the British public from interference in our democratic process?"

    "Well, in a nutshell, we found no-one is," he says.

    He says the democratic process "is a hot potato".

    DCMS and the Electoral Commission "did not have the weight and access required to tackle a major hostile threat".

    It "must be a ministerial priority", he says.

  6. Report criticises government inactionpublished at 10:43 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

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  7. Russia an 'immediate threat' to UK national securitypublished at 10:43 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    Stewart Hosie

    The SNP's Stewart Hosie says Russia's intelligence services are "disproportionately large and powerful" and "can act with little restraint".

    He warns that Russia's actions by its security and intelligence services pose a "all-encompassing security threat" to the West, and is an "immediate threat" to the UK's national security.

    He says the country does try to interfere in elections in other countries.

  8. Report 'result of extensive enquiries'published at 10:40 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    Committee member Kevan Jones says the report was a "result of extensive enquiries".

    He said the report had been waiting for the prime minister to approve it and Boris Johnson "provided confirmation the day after the election" in December.

    He says he is "pleased the report has been finally been published today nine months after it was first completed".

  9. What is the Intelligence and Security Committee?published at 10:36 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is the committee of Parliament with responsibility for oversight of UK intelligence.

    The newly formed committee was re-established last week - and Julian Lewis was elected chair of the committee.

    You can read more about it here.

    It has been the longest hiatus since the committee was established in the early 1990s.

  10. Committee launches reportpublished at 10:33 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    The chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee Julian Lewis has begun making remarks about the Russia report.

  11. Long-awaited report to be publishedpublished at 10:18 British Summer Time 21 July 2020

    Good morning and welcome to our live page.

    Nearly a year-and-a-half after it was completed, the Russia report will be published by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee at 10:30 BST.

    We’ll bring you the latest here.

    The report is expected to provide an overview of the threat Russia poses to the UK and what has been done to counter it. The most anticipated section will cover interference in political events, including the EU referendum in 2016.

    It was held back by the government because of the general election in December, prompting accusations of a cover-up.

    Read more about the Russia report from our security correspondent Gordon Corera here