Half of voters believe Kremlin interfered in Brexit referendum

A new Opinium poll for the Observer has revealed that 49 per cent of voters think there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

Following the long-awaited publication of the report into Russian interference by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee last week, which found that the government had not attempted to investigate potential Russian interference in the referendum, the poll also shows that 47 per cent of respondents believed Russia interfered in the December General Election.

Asked whether they thought there was any involvement from Russia in the last three General Elections, the EU referendum and the Scottish independence referendum, the public were more likely to think that the Russian government had interfered than that it had not in each.

Individually, 40 per cent thought Russia had interfered in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, whilst those who voted Remain in the EU referendum were more likely (63 per cent) to think that the Russian government interfered in 2016 than Leavers (39 per cent).

Meanwhile, asked about the 2019 General Election, 70 per cent of Lib Dem voters and 62 per cent of Labour voters believed the Russian government interfered, compared with 39 per cent of Conservative voters. However, even Conservative voters were more likely to believe that the Russian government interfered in that election than not (33 per cent).