Security Committee: Fill & Download for Free

We now know what UK prime minister Boris Johnson is hiding."Successive Governments have welcomed the oligarchs and their money with open arms, providing them with a means of recycling illicit finance through the London ‘laundromat’, and connections at the highest levels with access to UK companies and political figures."Intelligence and Security Committee, Russia Report, 21 July 2020The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has now published the Russia Report, which Mr Johnson has delayed by 10 months.The UK government conducted no assessment of potential for Russian interference in the 2016 EU referendum. Ministers were not interested in the potential foreign meddling until after emailed were hacked after the Democratic National Convention.The ISC Russia report recommends that UK intelligence community should undertake a retrospective assessment of the EU referendum campaign.The reports says that there has been credible open source commentary suggesting that Russia undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. There are some commentators describing this as the first post-Soviet Russian interference in a western democratic processIt now appears that Mr Johnson’s Conservatives party deliberately did nothing to assess Russians attempts to interfere in UK elections and referendum. By ignoring Russian interference - even as it served their own agenda - is a failure of leadership, a failure of security and a failure of the British people.My thanks to reporting by the Intelligence and Security Committee, Jim Pickard and Andrew Scott.

Chris Grayling can now work with the committee chair Julian Lewis to publish the Russia report.“Removing the whip from Julian Lewis is such a stupid and self-defeating form of revenge it’s hard not to grab the popcorn. He’s the ISC chair. He’s aligned with the opposition already. The Russia report is coming. And now the government has no hold on him.”James Ball, Global editor - the Bureau, 15 July 2020Conservative MP of 23 years Julian Lewis is now the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Having nominated himself, Mr Lewis secured the backing of the four Labour and SNP MPs. The remaining three Conservative MPs voted for Mr Grayling.As the SNP defence spokesperson Stewart McDonald said "Chris Grayling is the only man who could lose a rigged election". Recall that UK prime minister Boris Johnson wanted Mr Grayling to become the next committee chair.Mr Lewis has now been sacked from the Conservative parliamentary party. With a growing Conservative parliamentary party management problem, the events of this evening have now worsened for the beleaguered Mr Johnson. Only recently, the Huawei 5G project was scrapped because of a growing Conservative rebellion, among other reasons.The Intelligence & Security Committee - humiliated Mr Johnson for his choice of Mr Grayling for chairman - and now electing Mr Lewis instead, will meet again on 16 July 2020. The committee is expected to agree to publish the long delayed report on alleged Russian meddling in UK politics next week.Downing Street has managed to do something no-one has managed before: the intelligence and security committee is now genuinely independent of government.Mr Grayling can now work with new committee chair Mr Lewis and publish the Russia report.

That noise you can hear is Rudy Giuliani crying on his bathroom floor.