Westminster today: Theresa May faces senior MPs questions over Cambridge Analytica and Vote Leave row - as it happened

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Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: If we allow any amount of cheating in a democratic election, the problem will snowball

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie has appeared before MPs to discuss his work at scandal-hit Cambridge Analytica, as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg turned down an invitation to give evidence to Parliament on the row.

Mr Wylie sparked an international outcry when he revealed the firm had harvested Facebook data from more than 50 million users, which was used to influence voters in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential run.

​Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appeared before MPs this morning following news of the mass expulsions of Russian spies from the US and other allies, to show their support for Britain over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Theresa May, meanwhile, was grilled about the Cambridge Analytica row and Brexit during an appearance in front of the Liaison Committee. She announced a new funding model for the NHS will be introduced within the next year.

As it happened...

Key Points

• Whistleblower Christopher Wylie says Vote Leave 'cheating' could have swayed Brexit result
• Mark Zuckerberg refuses invitation to speak in Parliament on Facebook data abuse
• Theresa May announces new NHS funding model will be introduced
• Trump and European leaders expel more than 100 Russian diplomats in response to spy poisoning
• Boris Johnson branded 'sexist' for 'Lady Nugee' jibe
• Labour needs 'political education programme' to deal with antisemitism, says Corbyn ally

[27 March 2018 10:48 · Lizzy Buchan]

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie is giving evidence to the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

Watch our livestream here:

The livestream has now finished. 

[27 March 2018 11:02 · Lizzy Buchan]

Damian Collins repeated his call for Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence to the committee, either in person or via video link.

In a statement at the opening of the committee hearing, the chairman said: "We believe, given the serious nature of the allegations that have been made around the access and use of Facebook user data, that it is appropriate that Mark Zuckerberg should give evidence to the committee.

"He has suggested that Chris Cox, the chief product officer at Facebook, could come to London to give evidence to the committee in the first week after the Easter recess.

"So we would be very happy to invite Mr Cox to give evidence. However we would still like to hear from Mr Zuckerberg as well.

"We will seek to clarify from Facebook whether he is available to give evidence or not, because that wasn't clear from our correspondence.

"If he is available to give evidence then we would be happy to do that either in person or by video link, if that would be more convenient for him."

[27 March 2018 11:09 · Lizzy Buchan]

Christopher Wylie tells the committee that Cambridge Analytica set up an office in Cambridge to impress former Trump strategist Steve Bannon but nothing was "formalised with the university itself".

He says the firms "don't care whether or not what they do is legal, as long as it gets the job done". It goes round the world and "undermines civic institutions", it is an "example of what modern-day colonialism looks like" - by taking advantage of developing countries and profiting from that.

[27 March 2018 11:15 · Lizzy Buchan]

Christopher Wylie is now being asked about the death of his predecessor Dan Muresan, who was found dead in his hotel room in Kenya.

Speculating, he says a "deal went sour" and "people suspected he was poisoned in his hotel room", adding, "I heard that police were bribed not to enter the hotel for 24 hours".

[27 March 2018 11:19 · Lizzy Buchan]

[27 March 2018 11:22 · Lizzy Buchan]

Christopher Wylie says the people involved are very wealthy, as Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix was late to a meeting once as he had to pick up a £200,000 chandelier.

He says taking power in a developing country appeals to wealthy people in these positions.

[27 March 2018 11:36 · Lizzy Buchan]

Christopher Wylie said he came forward after realising his work has a "wider impact" than he initially thought.

"As a citizen, one has a duty to report unlawful activity," he said, explaining that he came forward shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump.

"I wouldn't say it's just because of Donald Trump, but Donald Trump makes it click in your head that it has a much wider impact.

"I don't think that military-style information operations is conducive to any democratic process."

[27 March 2018 11:42 · Lizzy Buchan]

Tory MP Rebecca Pow says Cambridge Analytica head Alexander Nix told the committee that his firm did not use the data.

He says it is "categorically untrue" that Cambridge Analytica does not use Facebook data. He says it was the founding dataset for the company and it is "misleading and dishonest" to suggest otherwise.

Earlier, Chairman Damian Collins said the committee had been given a stash of documents by Wylie, which they could publish tomorrow to back up his claims.

[27 March 2018 11:48 · Lizzy Buchan]

Christopher Wylie says he is a "progressive Eurosceptic", despite having "pink hair and a nose ring" - and his claims about Vote Leave are not motivated by efforts to thwart Brexit.

Wylie says he is "absolutely convinced there was a common plan and a common purpose" that Vote Leave, BeLeave, the DUP and Veterans for Britain were coordinating in the Brexit campaign.

They all decided to use a firm called Aggregate IQ, which had no public presence and had only ever worked on Cambridge Analytica projects

[27 March 2018 11:57 · Lizzy Buchan]

Christopher Wylie said the result of the Brexit referendum could have been different.

He told MPs: "This is a breach of the law, this is cheating... This is a fundamental change to the constitution of this country."

“I think it is completely reasonable to say that there could have been a different outcome of the referendum, if there had not been, in my view, cheating," he says.

He told the committee that AggregateIQ - the Canadian firm employed by Vote Leave to provide targeted marketing during the EU referendum - was set up by SCL Group, a strategic communications company linked to CA.

While internal documents showed that AIQ was effectively a "franchise", it was advantageous for the two companies to be presented as separate because of the requirement to avoid the appearance of "co-ordination" under US electoral law, he said.

He said he "absolutely" believed that AIQ had drawn on CA databases in the referendum campaign, telling the committee: "You can't have targeting software that doesn't access the database.

"Cambridge Analytica would have a database and AIQ would access that database, otherwise the software wouldn't work."