18 September 2023 , 21:30
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Western nations need a crack new unit to foil foreign interference in elections, Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey will warn tomorrow.
The Labour frontbencher will outline plans for a Democratic Resilience Centre - led by the UK and US - to thwart overseas meddling in ballots. He will unveil the proposal when he addresses the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC at lunchtime on Tuesday.
The warning comes as the UK gears up for a crunch general election, widely expected next autumn, and American voters prepare for a White House race showdown next November - potentially between President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.
Mr Healey said: “For Labour, the US is the UK’s most essential ally - especially on defence and security. Our countries should be on high alert ahead of the UK general election and US presidential election in 2024. This is the time to launch democratic resilience work together to better protect our democratic values and systems.”
The centre is the key recommendation from a policy paper Mr Healey publishes in the morning with British defence and security think tank, the Royal United Services Institute. Russian agents have been accused of trying to influence the 2016 Brexit referendum and that year’s American presidential vote, as well as the 2019 UK general election. Meanwhile, MI5 last year issued a warning about an “agent of influence” operating at Westminster working for the Chinese Communist Party. And earlier this year, a parliamentary aide was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing - fuelling fresh fears over foreign interference in British democracy.
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The planned unit will help the UK “protect our democratic values, political institutions, elections and open societies” and “not only collectively monitor threats and share best practices, but also advise on action and develop new strategies, including military operational responses, to counter them”, says Mr Healey in the paper. It would be available to NATO allies - and could lead to a fully-fledged alliance body, said sources.
Mr Healey added: “Democracy and freedom is hardwired into NATO’s founding treaties, alongside collective defence. Our deep conviction in democracy means we must also act to defend our democracies when under attack.” Mr Healey is on a week-long trip to the American capital where he will hold a series of meetings with top officials in Mr Biden’s administration and senior US Congress figures on Capitol Hill.
He is also expected to visit the Pentagon, as he becomes the latest Shadow Cabinet Minister to strut the global stage. Party leader Keir Starmer and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper went to The Hague in the Netherlands last week for talks with European policing agency Europol, while Mr Starmer and Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy went to a centre-left conference in Montreal, Canada, at the weekend.
Mr Lammy and the party leader are expected to meet French Premier Emmanuel Macron in Paris this week, before the Shadow Foreign Secretary jets across the Atlantic to join Mr Healey in Washington. Labour insiders said the diplomatic whirlwind underlines the party’s preparations for government - and how world leaders are taking seriously the prospect of Mr Starmer becoming Prime Minister next year.
Labour is keen to tighten links with its sister party in the States as the countdown to the British general election and US presidential battle intensifies. Mr Healey will speak alongside leading Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips, who represents Minnesota, at the AEI. The Labour frontbencher stressed that if his party ousts the Tories and returns to power at the next election, there will be “no change to Britain’s resolve to stand with Ukraine, confront Russian aggression and pursue (Vladimir) Putin for his war crimes”.
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