Hotly anticipated report on Russian interference in UK politics to be published soon

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Boris Johnson and partner Carrie Symonds at No.10 after the 2019 General Election. Credit: PA

The hotly-anticipated report into Russian interference in UK politics will be published before Parliament rises for the summer next week.

The Intelligence and Security Committee has agreed it will publish its report following months of delay.

Prime minister Boris Johnson was heavily criticised for blocking its publication ahead of last December’s general election.

The report, which was prepared by the previous membership of the ISC in the last parliament, will be released before the House of Commons rises for its summer recess on July 22.

It comes as the row over the election of backbench MP Julian Lewis to chair the committee over No.10 favourite Chris Grayling rumbles on.

Mr Lewis subsequently had the Conservative whip stripped amid claims he colluded with Opposition MPs to get the position.

Julian Lewis has been elected chair of the intelligence committee. Credit: PA

He condemned Downing Street’s attempt to impose its “preferred candidate” to lead the committee.

Mr Lewis said he did not respond to a call to vote for former cabinet minister Chris Grayling as he considered it to be an “improper request”.

In a statement, he said that the 2013 Justice and Security Act explicitly removed the right of the prime minister to choose the ISC chairman and gave it to the committee members.A senior Government source said Mr Lewis had had the Conservative whip withdrawn because he had been “working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage”.

However, Mr Lewis said Downing Street had publicly declared it did not have a favoured candidate for the post, despite widespread reports of a whipping operation to get the Tories on the committee to vote for Mr Grayling.

“In recent days, the official No 10 spokesman explicitly denied that the Government was seeking to ‘parachute’ a preferred candidate in to the chair, stating that it was a matter for the senior parliamentarians on the committee to decide,” he said.

“It is therefore strange to have the whip removed for failing to vote for the Government’s preferred candidate.”