Foreign Interference in UK Democratic Processes

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I think that we can all agree, not least after marking last week that the Ukraine war is longer than the First World War, that we are dealing with a bad-faith and outrageous actor with the Russian state, which has also been operating in the online space. Since October 2024, the Government have exposed and sanctioned 38 individuals and organisations responsible for delivering Russian information warfare. I appreciate, as will noble Lords, that there is still some way to go, but we are working every day to keep both our online and our offline spaces safe.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, in its 2020 report on Russia, the ISC highlighted the malign influence of Russia and, more recently, in our report on Iran, we highlighted the use of the online space to sow division within our politics. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that we should condemn those politicians who repeat and spread some of this false information?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I could not agree more with my noble friend. One of the most instructive things that we have seen in recent months was, when the Iranian regime turned off the internet in order to stop protests on its own streets, we saw how many online Twitter bots were no longer operational. We see that across the piece with state actors who are trying to sow division. There is therefore a responsibility on each and every one of us not to repeat their lies.