A secret
UK Government-funded infowars unit based in Scotland sent out social
media posts attacking Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.
On the
surface, the cryptically named Institute for Statecraft is a small
charity operating from an old Victorian mill in Fife.
But
explosive leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal the
organisation’s Integrity Initiative is funded with £2million of
Foreign Office cash and run by military intelligence specialists.
The
“think tank” is supposed to counter Russian online propaganda by
forming “clusters” of friendly journalists and “key
influencers” throughout Europe who use social media to hit back
against disinformation.
Politicians
and academics have reacted with fury to news a covert
Government-funded unit had been attacking the official opposition in
Parliament.
Labour
MSP Neil Findlay said: “It would appear that we have a charity
registered in Scotland and overseen by the Office of the Scottish
Charity Regulator that is funded by the UK Government and is spewing
out political attacks on UK politicians, the Labour Party and the
Labour movement. Such clear political attacks and propaganda
shouldn’t be coming from any charity. We need to know why the
Foreign Office have been funding it.”
David
Miller, a professor of political sociology in the School for Policy
Studies at the University of Bristol, added: “It’s
extraordinary that the Foreign Office would be funding a Scottish
charity to counter Russian propaganda which ends up attacking Her
Majesty’s opposition and soft-pedalling far-right politicians in
the Ukraine. People have a right to know how the Government are
spending their money, and the views being promoted in their name.”
The
senior manager of the Integrity Initiative appears to be Chris
Donnelly. A website biography states he is a graduate of Manchester
University and reserve officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps
who previously headed the British Army’s Soviet Studies Research
Centre at Sandhurst.
Documents
passed to the Sunday Mail suggest he was appointed an “Honorary
Colonel in Military Intelligence” in 2015 – the year the
Integrity Initiative was formed.
Full
report:
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