Boris Johnson claims Labour using Russia report as ‘Islingtonian Remainer plot to undermine’ Brexit

Prime minister dismisses damning accusation that his government was asleep at the wheel in countering the Kremlin threat as ‘absolutely absurd’

The Russia report controversy is a Remainer plot to “undermine” the Brexit referendum, Boris Johnson has claimed.

In fierce Commons clashes, the prime minister dismissed accusations that his government was asleep at the wheel in countering the Kremlin threat as “absolutely absurd”.

Instead, he turned on Sir Keir Starmer, claiming: “These criticisms are motivated by a desire to undermine the referendum on the European Union that took place in 2016.”

He urged MPs to recognise what the damning study – by the independent Intelligence and Security Committee – was “all about”.

That was “pressure from Islingtonian Remainers who have seized on this report to try to give the impression that Russian interference was somehow responsible for Brexit”.

Later, the prime minister condemned “the rage and fury of the Remainer elite finding there is, in fact, nothing in this report”.

“No smoking gun whatsoever, after all that froth and fury,” he alleged, adding: “They should simply move on.”

Mr Johnson was confronted after throwing out the recommendations of the long-suppressed report, which warned Russian interference is “the new normal”.

Security experts, campaigners and politicians united in criticism after the findings – including of “potential” interference in the Brexit referendum – were dismissed within hours.

The government refused to hold an investigation into the 2016 vote, while also rejecting warnings of dirty Russian money and power infiltrating the “London laundromat” and the House of Lords.

Sir Keir demanded to know why he “sat on” the committee’s report into Russian interference in UK politics for 10 months, refusing to allow its release.

“It concludes that Russia poses an immediate and urgent threat to our national security and is engaged in a range of activities that includes espionage, interfering in democratic processes and serious crime,” he said.

The Labour leader demanded action against “Kremlin-backed disinformation” and for the prime minister to “look again” at the licensing for broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today, to operate in the UK.

Sir Keir also attacked delays in bringing forward new security legislation, but Mr Johnson insisted new laws were coming on espionage, theft of intellectual property and sanctions.

And he claimed: “There’s no other government in the world that takes more robust steps to protect our democracy, to protect our critical national infrastructure and to protect our intellectual property from interference by Russia or by anybody else.”