Watson: Government 'blind' to Russian threat

The West Bromwich East MP and Labour deputy leader said Britain was embroiled in 'a new cold war' that Russia was winning.

He also demanded Theresa May respond to claims that she may have blocked an intelligence services probe into the Russian dealings of Arron Banks, the businessman behind the Leave.EU campaign.

Mr Watson made the remarks to activists at a fringe event at the Labour conference in Liverpool.

This year he has opted to break from convention by not speaking from the main conference stage, reportedly giving his slot to Richard Corbett, the leader of Labour's MEPs.

Mr Watson described the Russian threat as 'a Blitzkrieg for the digital age' and said Britain must urgently launch an inquiry into what happened in the EU referendum, similar to US special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether the Trump presidential campaign had links to Moscow.

He singled out the Prime Minister for criticism and demanded that she respond to allegations that she had thwarted a security services investigation into Mr Banks’ dealings with the Russian government.

Mr Banks, who bankrolled UKIP campaign to quit the EU, has denied receiving money from Russia, but the source of his wealth has been under scrutiny since he gave £9m to Leave.EU – the largest political donation in British history.

“Did [May] ask the security services to investigate? Or did she stop them doing so?” Mr Watson said.

“There is a suggestion that in the run-up to the referendum the Prime Minister – in her capacity at the time as Home Secretary – declined at least one application from the security services to mount a full investigation into Mr Banks and others suspected of Russian influence. We need to know if that is true.”

Asked about his remarks later, he said: “The intelligence services reported to her. It would be highly irregular if they hadn’t reported on Banks’ trips to the Russian embassy.”

He did not say where he had heard the suggestion that May had refused permission for Banks to be investigated.

The Electoral Commission is currently investigating the source of the multimillion-pound donations and loans that Mr Banks gave the Leave.EU campaign, but Mr Watson said that it was vital that a body with the powers to subpoena witnesses and evidence now took it over: “He says the money came from ‘his bank account’. But who put it there?”

Mr Watson said the shadow digital minister, Birmingham MP Liam Byrne, and Darren Jones, the MP for Bristol North, were launching a parliamentary petition to get the subject of a Mueller-style inquiry into the referendum debated in the House of Commons and that he had already raised his concerns with Labour’s ruling body.

“I really hope that we as a party understand what is at stake,” he said.

Mr Watson said Mrs May had talked 'tough' on Russia but claimed it was a different story behind the scenes.

“All of us need to wake up to the true scale of what’s been going on,” he said.

“Now is the time when the Government must drop the three wise monkeys act – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – about the biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy.”