Fury erupts as Labour sets up Big Brother-style unit to tackle Putin

Labour has been forced to deny that a Big Brother-style force set up to tackle foreign disinformation will police what UK citizens say online.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting insisted the National Centre for Information Defence would not be unleashed on critics of the Government.

Andy Burnham revealed the new unit in New York as he told the United Nations that Britain was coming under an “industrial-scale assault” from hostile states, including Vladimir Putin‘s Russia.

But questions were quickly raised as to what the new Whitehall body would actually be used for.

Mr Streeting told GB News: “We’re not interested in policing domestic political dissent.”

He insisted Britain’s tradition of free speech would be protected, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the threat level was “of a different order of magnitude” from the past.

He pointed to his own experience of a fake audio clip that circulated of him swearing about Gaza before the 2024 election, and warned: “Come the next general election, it will be hard to discern the real versions of politicians and BBC presenters from the artificial versions.”

Campaigners warned that assurances were needed to ensure the new unit would be limited to overseas threats.

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “It is right that the UK Government takes action against foreign hostile states’ disinformation campaigns, but the public also deserves assurances that such action is strictly limited to overseas threats.

“We have already seen the mantle of countering ‘disinformation’ being abused by our Government in attempts to malign and silence dissent.

“Shadowy operations that exert power over what views we can express and what information we can read engage Britons’ rights and require robust legal safeguards, oversight and scrutiny. That must include oversight by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, which has been shut out of overseeing counter-disinformation campaigns despite its requests to do so.

“Big Brother Watch has repeatedly found that units including the Counter Disinformation Unit, Rapid Response Unit, RICU and the MoD’s 77th Brigade have been involved in recording, flagging and triggering the censorship of Britons’ lawful speech.

“MPs across parties, journalists, human rights campaigners and members of the public have all been flagged in so-called ‘disinformation’ reports for lawful, truthful speech critical of the Government. We must not see a repeat of these abuses of power.

“Downing Street must also clarify how the new National Centre for Information Defence will fit with the existing jigsaw of counter-disinformation operations, including the National Security Online Information Team, which we found has strayed into policing lawful, domestic speech. The Government must explain how these units’ roles will differ and what safeguards will protect the public.”

Despite the reassurances, Mr Streeting was forced to say that Britons would still be free to criticise the Government under the new regime.

He said: “That includes the freedom to disagree, the freedom for people to challenge their government, to challenge government policy, to criticise robustly what we are doing and then to have the opportunity to choose a different government.”

Mr Burnham claimed Russian agencies had “used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation”, including bots, fake websites and forged branding of 28 British organisations, including the BBC.

He said the Kremlin spends around £1.3billion a year “manipulating information”, branding it “an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes”.

The Prime Minister said Britain had “tiptoed around this for too long”, declaring: “Well, no more.”

The unit will be run from the Cabinet Office, working alongside intelligence agencies, police and social media firms – handing the state unprecedented reach into what is said online.