‘Total mess’: Liz Truss ‘phone hack by Russia’ needs investigation, say Tory MPs

Handling of security ‘not good enough’, says former Army chief – as top expert calls for judicial inquiry

Conservative MPs have joined calls for an investigation into a bombshell report that Liz Truss’s phone was hacked by Russian spies, as the government was accused of failing to take national security seriously enough.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove declined to deny the report that the former prime minister’s personal phone was hacked when she was foreign secretary – but insisted the government has “very robust protocols” in place.

One leading security expert told The Independent that it was time for a judicial inquiry into the security of government communications – describing the use of personal phones as a “total mess”.