Wes Streeting told GB News: ‘We’re not interested in policing domestic political dissent’
Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, has warmly welcomed the PM’s announcement about setting up a National Centre for Information Defence. (See 8.50am.) It is an idea her committee proposed in a report earlier this year.
In a statement, she said:
For too long, the approach of successive governments to disinformation has been disjointed and without organisation, allowing states like Russia to amplify lies about this country, to sow division and stoke tensions. This new National Centre for Information Security is an opportunity to finally take on this very serious threat.
The foreign affairs committee recommended exactly this in March. We were extremely worried about what seemed to be a complacency of the British establishment at the disinformation being promoted from abroad, particularly from Russia. We thought the response from Whitehall had essentially been ‘talk to the hand because the face ain’t listening,’ but it seems we were wrong. I’m absolutely delighted.
The post PM’s new anti-disinformation unit won’t target ‘domestic political dissent’, defence secretary says – UK politics live appeared first on World news | The Guardian.
