Andy Burnham has accused Russia of exploiting Brexit to sow division in the UK as he announced a new unit to tackle online disinformation.
The prime minister unveiled plans for a new National Centre for Information Defence to tackle Russian information warfare as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He told world leaders that the UK and its allies had been subjected to an “industrial-scale assault” by hostile states, including Russia, to “prey on people’s fear”.
The prime minister said misinformation had worsened in recent years, accusing Vladimir Putin’s agencies of interfering with the 2019 general election and falsifying newspaper articles.
“It is now ten years since Brexit, my country has lived through the destruction, and it has given us a unique perspective that I want to share with you today,” he told the UN.
He added: “In recent years we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and many of our allies. Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people's fears.
“I know this is a shared challenge. So we are going to use our experience in the UK – and the fact that we have already been through this shock – to help other countries.”
Mr Burnham suggested that out-of-work youngsters were particularly vulnerable to the kind of misinformation and disinformation peddled by Russian activists.
“Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fear,” he said.
“They’ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organisations – including universities and the BBC. They’ve amplified far-right narratives.
“And we have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 General Election.
“We also know that they have tried to stoke tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events. The idea that anyone would try to use such things to their advantage is just repulsive – but it is what they do.”
Russia has previously been accused of using illicitly acquired documents about UK-US trade talks to try to influence the 2019 contest.
The new unit is initially being led out of the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with the new centre working alongside intelligence agencies, government departments, the police and social media companies.
Mr Burnham said: “The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information. We’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community – creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair.
“On top of that, we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that AI will multiply the threat.”
Defence secretary Wes Streeting said the UK needs to think about an “increasingly challenging propaganda war being waged by state threats like Russia”.
He said the Kremlin and non-state actors are seeking to “sow misinformation” in order to give Britons a “warped sense of what's happening”, making it harder for people to “separate fact from fiction and reach their own informed conclusions”
“So, against that challenging backdrop, just as we think about how we defend our underwater cables or our satellites up in space, we also need to think about how we defend our democracy from interference,” he told the BBC.
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