Tory MP claims Russia report is plot to ‘discredit Brexit result’

Tory Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen. Photograph: Channel 4 News. - Credit: Archant

A Brexiteer has claimed that the Russia report is an attempt to ‘sabotage’ Brexit and to discredit the referendum result.

The report was finalised last March and still had not been approved by the prime minister’s office last October when the general election was called.

The publication could have been delayed beyond the summer recess had attempts by Downing Street to implement Chris Grayling as the intelligence and security committee (ISC) chair not failed.


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Now Tory Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen has claimed that the report is being used to ‘sabotage Brexit’.

He told the Express: ‘I hope that the ISC report will not be used as yet another attempt to try to discredit the referendum vote for Brexit or to smear Arron Banks again.

‘Too often we have seen that Remainers cannot accept defeat and have repeatedly used any means possible to attempt to undermine and discredit the result.

‘Yet whenever the British people have been asked to vote in a referendum or election in the last four years they have consistently and increasingly overwhelmingly backed the Leave side.’

In a opinion column for the same newspaper, Leave.EU donor Arron Banks wrote: ‘The background to the report is clear. Russian interference in Brexit has become a mythical mantra for hardcore Remainers as they sought to try to discredit the result in any way they could’.

‘We are living in an age where political opponents are not prepared to accept defeat at the ballot box, and use other methods,’ he added.

It comes as the newspapers claims that Banks could delay the publication of the report by demanding a right-to-reply to any allegations made about him.

An ISC source said: ‘The ISC will not comment on any such matters.

‘The report will be published before the House rises on Wednesday.’