Tweets pumped out by bots included repeated retweets of Corbyn’s own account

Police are investigating a death threat against a Labour MP opposed to Jeremy Corbyn, which they believe came from a Russian social media robot.

Details of the inquiry emerged as The Sunday Times today reveals that in the run-up to the local elections hundreds of Russian automated Twitter accounts were in action promoting Corbyn’s party.

In a third explosive development, a Conservative MP questions whether the Labour leader’s closest aide was an “agent of influence” for the Russian state.

Research carried out with Swansea University found that Russian Twitter bots, masquerading as women with English names, were created in large batches before the elections, just as they were before the 2017 general election. Eight out of 10 messages about Labour were supportive, while nine out