Hillary Clinton slams ‘shameful’ decision to delay Russian interference report
Hillary Clinton has slammed the UK government for delaying the release of a report into potential Russian political interference before next month’s election, calling it “shameful” and “inexplicable”.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report has been given security clearance, but will not be publicly released before the 12 December General Election.
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Clinton told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett that voters “deserve to know” what’s in the report.
“I find it inexplicable that your government will not release a government report about Russian influence,” she said. “Inexplicable and shameful.
“People who are about to vote in a month or so deserve to know what is in a report that one has to speculate must have something of concern, otherwise why wouldn’t it be publicly disclosed.”
The report is said to include contains allegations, against Russian state actors, of espionage and election meddling.
This includes evidence from GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 about potential attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum and the 2017 General Election.
Clinton said it should be an “absolute condition” that the report is released before next month’s election.
“Because there is no doubt – we know it in our country, we have seen it in Europe, we have seen it here – that Russia in particular is determined to try to shape the politics of western democracies,” she said.
“Not to our benefit, but to theirs.”
The report was completed in March and passed over to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for approval on 17 October.
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Chancellor Sajid Javid insisted the delay in publishing the report was “perfectly normal” due to its sensitive nature.
However, Labour shadow foreign secretary branded the delay as “clearly politically motivated”.