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AFP
The ministers are considering strengthening security laws after a report by MPs said the UK had “seriously underestimated” the threat of foreign interference, including Russia’s subversion.
Downing Street sources said a new law requiring foreign agents to register in the UK was under review by n. ° 10.
But Chris Mason of the BBC added that currently “there are no firm proposals.”
It occurs when Labor criticized “systemic flaws” in the way the UK has dealt with Russia and other “hostile states”.
As the government prepares to face questions in the Commons later, shadow Secretary of the Interior Nick Thomas-Symonds said Russia’s “growing threat” could not be ignored.
He added that the government had not offered the UK security services “the necessary strategic support, legislative tools or resources” to defend the country’s interests.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday: “We have been clear that Russia must desist from its attacks on the United Kingdom and our allies.”
“We will be determined to defend our country, our democracy and our values from such hostile state activity.”
The government faces calls to do much more to counter Russian espionage and subversion after Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee said the UK was the primary target after the United States and NATO.
In a 50-page report, the committee said the UK was “clearly a target” for disinformation campaigns around its elections, but that the problem was described as a “hot potato,” and that no organization took the initiative to tackle it.
The new law under consideration could reflect the new “espionage law” suggested by the committee, making it explicitly illegal to be a spy in the UK, reported Chris Mason, BBC political correspondent.
Such a law would compel those representing the interests of foreign powers to register upon arrival in the United Kingdom. Those who did not, and therefore operated covertly, would be breaking the law.
A report in the Times newspaper said any new legislation would aim to make the UK a “more difficult environment for adversaries to operate” and could follow the pattern of similar laws in the United States and Australia.
If you don’t search, you can’t find.
Whether deliberate or flawed, the long-awaited report by the Intelligence and Security Committee describes gaps in the UK’s handling of the threat from Russia.
For years, it seems that lack of priority and lack of curiosity allowed risks to be unsupervised, if not not controlled.
The UK government has now hardened its attitude towards Putin’s Russia.
Read Laura’s full blog
The parliamentarians’ report stated that the government made no effort to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the EU referendum and criticized intelligence agencies for not paying more attention to the issue.
And he said the government only “belatedly realized the level of threat Russia could pose” after the so-called “hack and leak” operation against Democrats in the 2016 US election, calling it a “game changer.”
‘Tools and resources’
Subsequently, Labor will use an urgent question in Parliament to highlight what it says are multiple “deficiencies” in the UK’s national security policy shown in the report.
Thomas-Symonds said: “At all levels, the government response does not appear to match the threat.
“The UK has world-leading security services, but this report makes it clear that they have not received the strategic support, legislative tools or resources necessary to defend our interests.”
“The government urgently needs to describe how they will address these systemic failures.”
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Reuters
Russia has dismissed the report as Russaphobia
Amid mounting tensions with China, he said the report “should also sound alarms that other countries wishing to harm the UK are engaging in similar activities and not facing a robust enough response.”
The government rejected the committee’s call for a full assessment by intelligence agencies of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 EU referendum, saying it “had seen no evidence of successful interference.”
Raab “categorically rejected” claims by SNP MP Stewart Hosie, an ISC member, that the government “actively avoided” seeking evidence of Russian interference.
Downing Street was accused of delaying the report before the December British election and of delaying his nominations to establish the new committee, both claims he has denied.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the report “Russophobia”.
