Dominic Grieve has called for the publication of a report on Russian meddling in the democratic process to be published before the general election, saying it contains knowledge “germane” to voters.

Boris Johnson had been expected to approve publication of the 50-page dossier, compiled by the cross-party intelligence and security committee, by Thursday. His failure to do so sparked calls for its release amid speculation that it could potentially be damaging to the government.

“I cannot think of a reason why he should wish to prevent this report being published,” Grieve, the committee’s chairman, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It’s very demoralising for us when we find we put in months of work and at the end of it, we’re not getting an adequate response.”

Grieve said the report was informative and people should be entitled to access it. “It seems to us that this report is germane because we do know – and I think it is widely accepted – that the Russians have sought to interfere in other countries’ democratic processes in the past.”

In a later interview with Sky, Grieve, who was attorney-general from 2010-14, defended the neutrality of the committee, which he said served to inform the public about the security services’ effectiveness and the nature of external threats the UK may face – “in this case concentrating on Russia because of recent events showing Russia is undoubtedly a threat”.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was among those who called for the report to be published, asking what the government “have got to hide”. “Yes, it should be released,” he said. “And I suspect that the reason it hasn’t been published is because they’re going to delay it past the dissolution of parliament on Tuesday, and then they can hide it away until some point in the future.

“If a report has been called for and written, and it should be in the public domain, then what have they got to hide?”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, said: “He [Grieve] has seen it and he says this is something that should be published before we embark on an election and that makes perfect sense to me.

“Because, if there is information that we should know about what has happened in previous democratic events and who has tried to interfere, the public has a right to know and the government shouldn’t be keeping it a secret.”

The House of Commons was previously told that the report had been sent to the prime minister on 17 October, and Grieve – who will sit as an independent at the next election after he was expelled from the Conservative party over Brexit – said it must be released before parliament is dissolved on Tuesday, otherwise it may never be published.

It is understood that the dossier examines allegations that Russian money has flowed into British politics in general and to the Conservative party in particular. It also includes claims that Russia launched a major influence operation in 2016 in support of Brexit.

The process for clearing the report on security grounds was completed in the middle of October, after it was finalised in March 2019, but it has since sat with Downing Street awaiting its final release, according to the BBC.

The business secretary, Andrea Leadsom, said there was nothing unusual about the failure to publish the report. She told the Today programme she did not know why the publication had been delayed and said: “I wouldn’t accept that it’s been held up. I don’t think there’s anything unusual about this. Many select committee reports are produced and the government has to respond properly. It cannot respond in haste.”

John Bercow, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Commons, said on Thursday that he hoped the Commons leader, Jacob Rees-Mogg, would help expedite the publication of the report and that it would not be necessary for Grieve to raise the matter again.