Institute for Statecraft: Integrity Initiative Debate

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Department: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Institute for Statecraft: Integrity Initiative

Hilary Benn Excerpts
Wednesday 12th December 2018

(6 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Emily Thornberry Portrait Emily Thornberry
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I’m not a gentleman. I have never been a gentleman.

Hilary Benn Portrait Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)
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The Minister said that the Institute for Statecraft was hacked several weeks ago. Will he clarify for the House whether that hacking extended to the Twitter account of the integrity initiative, which has been retweeting articles that are undoubtedly critical of my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, and the Opposition’s policy?

Alan Duncan Portrait Sir Alan Duncan
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The answer is that I do not know, but if information is on a Twitter account, it is publicly available anyway. It is the information that was not publicly available that was hacked, and I deplore that hack. That is what is now being used by Russian-inspired sources to create the sort of encounters we are witnessing here today.