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+--- Thread: BoJo: We must find source of UK-US trade document leak (UK community) (/thread-7912.html)
BoJo: We must find source of UK-US trade document leak (UK community) - C C - Dec 7, 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50699168
EXCERPT: Boris Johnson has said an investigation is needed into the source of leaked documents on UK-US trade negotiations posted on Reddit. Labour says the documents show the NHS would be at risk under a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. On Friday, forum website Reddit said unredacted documents were uploaded as "part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia". It has suspended 61 accounts that showed a "pattern of coordination". The government said it was looking into the matter with help from the National Cyber Security Centre.
[...] The contents of the documents have played a significant part in Labour's election message on the NHS, after Mr Corbyn highlighted them ... The Labour leader said the papers were evidence that the UK government was in advanced stages of negotiations with the US to open up the NHS to American pharmaceutical companies. Labour have not said where they obtained their copy of the documents.
[...] A bit like journalists never reveal their sources, Labour are quite happy to focus on what these documents say rather than where they come from. ... On the one hand, people are asking "where exactly did you get those documents from?" Remember, they were online in their unredacted form for several weeks before Labour brought them to everyone's attention. But at the same time, we're still talking about these documents and what Labour claims that they show - that the NHS is up for sale, in their words. Boris Johnson and the Conservatives flatly deny that.
[...] For the Conservatives, you've got this uneasiness around Russian interference in an election campaign - which isn't good for them because attention will turn to the report by Parliament which the government hasn't released. ... Mr Johnson said the documents "didn't prove what Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party hoped it would prove" adding "it was just another distraction from the void at the heart of Labour's policy on Brexit".
Neither UK nor US governments have disputed the authenticity of the documents... (MORE - details)
RELATED: What do the leaked documents actually show?