Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said Sunday that there is a threat from hostile elements such as Russia trying to influence the country’s democratic process in the upcoming general election.
The UK will go to the polls on Thursday. The election is expected to unseat the ruling right-wing Conservatives and bring the opposition Labor Party to power.
His comments came after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation revealed that it had discovered five Facebook pages that were spreading pro-Kremlin talking points.
Some of them have encouraged support for the far-right Reform UK Party led by Nigel Farage, a Brexiteer who is a major challenger to the incumbent Conservatives.
“All elections are at risk, and in this election we actually see hostile state actors trying to influence the outcome of the election campaign,” said Deputy Prime Minister Dowden, adding, “Russia is a prime example of that, and it’s a classic example from the Russian playbook.” However, he noted that there were “examples of relatively specific, low-level material”.
Farage, an admirer of former US President Donald Trump, rejected claims the Russians may have meddled in the election, using the British slang word for “nonsense”.
He was criticized during the election campaign for saying that the West had provoked Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Pollsters say his anti-immigration party will steal votes from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Tories and contribute to a landslide victory for the centre-right opposition Labor Party.
During the election campaign, the Labor Party has gained an electoral advantage of more than 20 points, but Prime Minister Sunak emphasized on Sunday that he will be the Prime Minister on Friday morning.
He told the BBC: “I’m fighting a very hard battle and I think people are waking up to the real threat of a Labor government.”
Keir Starmer’s Labor has been given another boost after the influential right-wing newspaper the Sunday Times backed his party. British singer Anton John has also declared his support for the Labor Party.