UK opposition politicians on Saturday called for an investigation after a newspaper reported that suspected Kremlin agents had hacked former British prime minister Liz Truss’s cellphone when she was foreign secretary.
In an unconfirmed report, The Mail on Sunday cited unnamed security sources as saying that Truss’ personal mobile phone had been hacked “by agents suspected of working for the Kremlin.”
They are believed to have gained access to “top-secret exchanges with international partners.”
Photo: Reuters
“We do not comment on individuals’ security arrangements,” a government spokesperson said, but added that there are “robust systems in place to protect against cyberthreats.”
The hackers also gained access to Truss’ conversations with her ally, British lawmaker Kwasi Kwarteng, criticizing then-British prime minister Boris Johnson, the report said.
Kwarteng became chancellor of the exchequer while Truss was prime minister.
British Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, of the Labour Party, said the report raises “immensely important national security issues” including why and how the information was leaked.
“It is essential that all of these security issues are being investigated and addressed at the very highest level,” she said.
“We need an urgent independent investigation to uncover the truth,” Liberal Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran said.
The BBC and Sky News said they had not been able to verify the report.
A source told the paper that the “compromised” phone has been placed inside a locked safe in a secure government location after up to a year’s messages were hacked including “highly sensitive discussions” on the war in Ukraine.
The hacking was discovered in the summer when Truss was foreign secretary and campaigning to become party leader and the next prime minister, the paper reported.
It said that “details were suppressed” by Johnson and British Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service Simon Case, who at the time was the prime minister’s most senior policy adviser.
The article did not make clear on what basis Russia was suspected to be behind the alleged attack.
It quoted a security source as saying: “It takes a while to track who is behind attacks like these, but Russia tends to top the list.”
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