Andy Burnham says he’s not embarrassed about hoax message exchange

Andy Burnham says he is not embarrassed that he exchanged messages with a person posing as US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.

The prime minister added all politicians face “these challenges” but insisted he did “everything right” in how he handled the security breach.

News website Politico first reported, external that Burnham communicated with a person claiming to be Susie Wiles. Burnham said there was a “minimal exchange of information of zero consequence”.

Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary has written to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to ask them to consider investigating what he called an “egregious security breach”.

It is understood the communication between Burnham and the person posing as Wiles was in the form of messages and there was no conversation between the two.

Asked if he was embarrassed about the incident, Burnham told broadcasters: “No, I am not because there was a minimal exchange, nothing of consequence and quickly I realised that this needed to be reported and I did so.

“So I handled it in the right way. All politicians are receiving these pressures and these challenges, but I did everything right.”

Pressed on what action is being taken to find out who was behind the incident and to improve systems, Burnham said the “correct action” had been taken both in the UK and the US, without providing further details.

MacCleary, in his letter to ISC chairman Lord Beamish, said the security of the prime minister’s communications “ought to be an absolute priority”.

He added: “We need to understand how this breach could occur, or else risk it being repeated.”