4 August 2020 | UK NEWS
Documents brandished by Jeremy Corbyn during the previous election were reportedly sourced by Russian hackers from the office of the former Trade Secretary, specifically from his e-mail account.
During the party conference in 2019, Mr Corbyn brandished these documents, which contained details of a potential trade deal with the United States and which he said proved that the Conservatives were planning to sell parts of the NHS to private American companies.
According to the Reuters news agency, sources have said that these documents were hacked from the office of Trade Secretary Liam Fox. Fox is no longer a member of the Cabinet, after Boris Johnson relieved him of his duties.
The sources spoke in anonymity due to an ongoing criminal investigation into the alleged hackings, with the hackers acting several times over a three-month period.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had previously announced that there had been an attempt at election interference from Russian actors via the “online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked government documents”.
The documents had originally been released on Reddit months before Corbyn performed his pre-election stunt.
A Government spokeswoman said with regard to this latest revelation: “There is an ongoing criminal investigation into how the documents were acquired, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this point.”
On the future protection of classified information, she said that the Government had ”very robust systems in place to protect the IT systems of officials and staff”.
This announcement comes following the release of a report conducted by the ISC on Russian interference into UK life.
The UK is currently negotiating with the US over a trade deal. Liz Truss, the current Trade Secretary, has been scheduled to meet with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer today and yesterday, according to his office.
