Putin has been dividing Britain by exploiting Brexit, Burnham claims

Brexit has been exploited by Vladimir Putin to sow division in Britain, Andy Burnham claimed last night.

In a speech to the United Nations in New York, the Prime Minister said the UK had faced an ‘industrial scale assault by hostile actors’ aimed at undermining the country since leaving the EU.

In recent days, the PM has suggested that unnamed ‘outside actors’ had manipulated opinion during the 2016 referendum.

In his UN speech on Tuesday night, he said the situation had worsened since Brexit – and named Russia as the main culprit.

Downing Street said a new National Centre for Information Defence announced by the PM – and dubbed the ‘Ministry of Truth’ – would detect and disrupt ‘hostile state information attacks’.

Mr Burnham has hinted this week he could commit Labour to rejoining the EU in the party’s next manifesto.

And in his UN speech he vowed to draw a line under a ‘corrosive’ decade.

‘It is now ten years since Brexit, my country has lived through the destruction, and it has given us a unique perspective that I want to share with you today,’ he told UN delegates.

The PM claimed Vladimir Putin had been exploiting Brexit to divide the country 

 ‘In recent years we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and many of our allies. Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fears.

‘I know this is a shared challenge. So we are going to use our experience in the UK – and the fact that we have already been through this shock – to help other countries.’

He said hostile agencies had ‘amplified far right narratives’ and ‘tried to interfere with the 2019 General Election’.

The PM said the Kremlin spends £1.3 billion a year ‘manipulating information’.

No 10 said the new disinformation unit would operate alongside intelligence agencies, the police and social media companies and focus on ‘improving local community cohesion and preventing a distorted and untrue narrative about Britain’.

Mr Burnham said the UK ‘will not play Russia’s game of trading escalatory rhetoric,’ adding: ‘Instead, we will be prepared but not panic. Clear-eyed but cool-headed and unflinching in defending our people and our allies.’

Hardline Remain campaigners have claimed for years that Russia tried to influence the outcome of the Brexit referendum, but have failed to provide proof.

Mr Burnham’s decision to revive the claim will fuel speculation he is trying to soften the country up for a major push to reverse Brexit.

The PM has said that for now he will stick to the Brexit red lines in Labour’s manifesto, which include no return to the single market or free movement.

But he has said he hopes Britain will rejoin the EU in his lifetime.

Asked this week if he could pledge to rejoin in Labour’s next manifesto, he said the question was for ‘another day’.