Russian interference in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum is a debated subject and remains unproven, though multiple sources argue evidence exists demonstrating that the Russian government attempted to influence British public opinion in favour of leaving the European Union. Investigations into this subject have been undertaken by the UK Electoral Commission, the UK Parliament's Culture Select Committee and Intelligence and Security Committee, and the United States Senate. "The Russia Report" published by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in July 2020 did not specifically address the Brexit campaign, but it concluded that Russian interference in UK politics is commonplace. It also found substantial evidence that there had been interference in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Timeline Background After the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum on the UK leaving the EU ("Brexit"), Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that Russia "might be happy" with a positive Brexit vote. The official Remain campaign accused the Kremlin of secretly backing a positive Brexit vote.
Before the vote 22 July 2014, Laurence Levy, a lawyer with the U.S. law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, advised U.S. heiress Rebekah Mercer, American media executive Steve Bannon, and British businessman Alexander Nix on the legality of their company, Cambridge Analytica, being involved in U.S. elections. He advised that Nix and any foreign nationals without a green card working for the company not be involved in any decisions about work the company performs for any clients related to U.S. elections. He further advised Nix to recuse himself from any involvement with the company's U.S. election work because he is not a U.S. citizen. 26–27 September 2015, during the UKIP annual conference at the Doncaster Racecourse, British political activist Andy Wigmore met Alexander Udod, a Russian diplomat and suspected Russian intelligence officer, who in 2018 was expelled from the U.K. in retaliation for the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. In October, Udod arranged a November lunch for Wigmore, British businessman Arron Banks and the Russian ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko. 24 October 2015, Arron Banks sent an email to Steve Bannon and others to request help from Cambridge Analytica, where Bannon was a VP, with fundraising in the U.S. for the Leave.EU campaign. Foreign contributions to British political campaigns are illegal. Banks came under criminal investigation in 2018 in part over questions about Leave.EU's funding sources. 6 November 2015, Wigmore and Banks had lunch with Yakovenko at the ambassador's residence in London; they briefed him on Brexit. In a June 2018 interview, Wigmore told The Washington Post his goal for the meeting was to discuss finding a buyer for a banana plantation in Belize. 17 November 2015, Andy Wigmore, Banks, and Cambridge Analytica executive Brittany Kaiser launched the Leave.EU campaign. Yakovenko introduces Wigmore and Banks to Russian oligarch Siman Povarenkin and documents related to the meeting suggest Banks was offered business deals, per The Guardian reports from 2018. 16 February 2016 – Boris Johnson dined with Evgeny Lebedev, son of Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, shortly after Johnson backed the Leave campaign. March 2016, Philip Hammond, the former Secretary for Defence and Foreign Secretary (later the Chancellor of the Exchequer) stated in a speech "the only country who would like us to leave the EU is Russia".P. Hammond, Alternatives to EU Membership (2 March 2016) UK Government speeches, "the EU already either has, or is negotiating, trade deals with all the biggest Commonwealth countries, and none of our allies wants us to leave the EU. Not Australia, not New Zealand, not Canada, not the US. In fact, the only country who would like us to leave the EU is Russia. That should tell us all we need to know."
After the 23 June 2016 vote 2016 21 July 2016, Wigmore and Nigel Farage encountered staffers for Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant at the bar in the Hilton Hotel. A staffer invited Wigmore and Farage to Mississippi. 12 November 2016, Banks, Farage and Wigmore visited Trump Tower unannounced and were invited inside by Bannon. They have a long meeting with Trump. Wigmore asked Trump's receptionist for the Trump transition team's contact information. "What's wrong with that? We gave them a telephone number," Banks said. The committee heard Wigmore had obtained the number after he supplied one for No 10 to a receptionist for Donald Trump. According to Wigmore, she said: "You're British, do you have the telephone number for No 10 Downing Street? We do not have [a] relationship with the British or any of these governments." December 2016, Ben Bradshaw MP claimed in Parliament that Russia had interfered in the Brexit referendum campaign."'Highly probable' that Russia interfered in Brexit referendum, Labour MP says" (13 December 2016) Independent In February 2017, Bradshaw called on the British intelligence service, Government Communications Headquarters, then under Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary, to reveal any information it had on Russian interference.J. Kanter and A. Bienkov, 'Labour MPs think the government is hiding info about Russia interfering with Brexit' (23 February 2016) Business Insider
2017 26 February 2017, Andy Wigmore told The Guardian that Robert Mercer donated Cambridge Analytica's services to the Leave.EU campaign. The U.K. Electoral Commission said the donation was not declared. 16 March 2017, The American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) gave an "International Consultant of the Year" award to Nigel Farage and Leave.EU in Huntington Beach, California. 17–25 March 2017, While in Orange County, California, Farage and Arron Banks attended GOP gatherings at Scott Baugh's invitation. Splitting California into two states is discussed at two of the gatherings. Afterwards The Washington Times and The Sunday Times, London reported that Baugh and Gerry Gunster were hiring Farage and Banks to help fundraise in California for a campaign to split the state in two. Baugh denies the story saying he only, "asked Farage if he would be interested in talking to some of the county's GOP movers and shakers.". October 2017, Members of Parliament in the Culture, Media and Sport Committee demanded that Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media corporations disclose all adverts and details of payments by Russia in the Brexit campaign.'MPs order Facebook to hand over evidence of Russian election meddling' (24 October 2017) Telegraph November 2017, it became public knowledge that Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of Vote Leave, was a founding member of Conservative Friends of Russia, and had been a target asset by someone known to be a Russian spy.T. Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (Penguin Random House 2018) 105. C. Cadwalladr, 'Brexit, the ministers, the professor and the spy: how Russia pulls strings in UK' (4 November 2017) Guardian 12 December 2017, members of the US Congress Ruben Gallego, Eric Swalwell and Gerry Connolly wrote to the Director of National Intelligence requesting information on Russian interference in the Brexit vote.Democratic Congressmen request information about possible Russian interference in "Brexit" vote (12 December 2017). On 13 December 2017, Facebook stated that it found no significant Russian activity during Brexit, but this was immediately rejected by the committee chair, Damian Collins, as being information that was already public after US investigations into Russian interference.M. Burgess, 'Facebook claims Russia paid for 3 ads around Brexit – costing 73p' (13 December 2017) Wired
2018 January 2018, a US Senate minority report suggested possible ways Russia may have influenced the Brexit campaign.P. Wintour, 'Russian bid to influence Brexit vote detailed in new US Senate report' (10 January 2018) Guardian It stated,US Committee on Foreign Relations, Minority Report, 'Putin's Asymmetric Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for U.S. National Security' (2018 )
19 March 2018, Channel 4 broadcast its investigative documentary on Cambridge Analytica. June 2018, The Guardian suggested that Arron Banks, the biggest donor to the campaign for leaving, and co-organiser of Leave.EU received the offer of a Russian gold mine, and had had a series of meetings with the Russian Ambassador. On 14 June 2018, Banks appeared before Parliamentary committee hearing, where he appeared to admit to having lied about his engagements with Russians, and later walked out refusing to answer further questions by citing a luncheon appointment with the Democratic Unionist Party.C. Cadwalladr, 'Arron Banks ‘met Russian officials multiple times before Brexit vote’' (9 June 2018) Guardian. C. Cadwalladr and P. Jukes, 'Leave. EU faces new questions over contacts with Russia ' (16 June 2018) Guardian. C. Cadwalladr, 'Arron Banks, Brexit and the Russia connection ' (16 June 2018) The Observer. July 2018, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, released an interim report on 'Disinformation and ‘fake news’', stating that Russia had engaged in "unconventional warfare" through Twitter and other social media against the United Kingdom, designed to amplify support for a "leave" vote in Brexit.House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, 'Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Interim Report' (July 2018) (July 2018) ch 5, Russian influence in political campaigns 20 September 2018, AggregateIQ, a Canadian political consultancy and analytics company, received the first General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) notice issued by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for using people's data "for purposes which they would not have expected." Various pro-Brexit campaigns paid the company £3.5 million to target ads at prospective voters. While its Brexit work was before the GDPR went into effect, it was fined because it retained and continued to use the data after the GDPR came into full force. The company is affiliated with SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica, and Cambridge Analytica employees sometimes call AggregateIQ "our Canadian office." 1 November 2018, The British National Crime Agency opens a criminal investigation into Arron Banks upon referral from the Electoral Commission and concluded "we have reasonable grounds to suspect that: Mr Banks was not the true source of the £8m reported as loans" and "Various criminal offences may have been committed." The commission believes Banks facilitated a loan from Rock Holdings to his Leave.EU campaign. Rock Holdings is barred from funding campaigns in the U.K. under British election law because it is on the Isle of Man, which is a possession of the British Crown but not part of the United Kingdom.
2019 February 2019, The Guardian reported that Brittany Kaiser, former business development director of SCL Group, was subpoenaed by Robert Mueller. Her spokesman said she was cooperating fully with his investigation. She was the first person with links to both Brexit and the Trump campaign known to have been questioned by Mueller. 17 October 2019, the Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK Parliament passed a completed report on allegations that Russian government-sponsored activities had an effect on the outcome of the referendum to Downing Street.Dan Sabbagh, Peter Walker and Luke Harding, 'No 10 blocks Russia EU referendum report until after election ', The Guardian (4 November 2019). 4 November 2019, Downing Street commented that the report received on 17 October will not be published prior to the 2019 UK General Election.
2020 21 July 2020, Russia Report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament was published.
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